Big-name trio focus on reducing plastic waste

Consumer goods giant Unilever has joined with the US Agency for International Development and financial services consultancy EY to tackle plastic pollution.

The trio launched the Circle Alliance with a remit to scale solutions that slash the use and disposal of the material.

The initiative aims to support circular economy entrepreneurs and small businesses across the plastics value chain.

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It has a particular focus on women, who make up the majority of waste collectors working in the informal sector in the global south.

Rebecca Marmot, chief sustainability officer at Unilever, said: “Circle’s collaborative model of enterprise acceleration – delivered through a mix of grant funding and bespoke business support – will help scale both new and existing solutions for packaging circularity, whether that’s driving collection and recycling or reuse–refill models.

“Crucially, it will support many small to medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs that offer impactful, market-based solutions but are currently too small to work at the scale we need.”

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While the initial focus is on India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, the plan is to expand to other markets by bringing in other organisations with additional funds.

Unilever and EY have previously worked with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office on enterprise accelerator Transform.