Unilever’s European factories achieve zero-waste target

Unilever has announced that all of its factories have achieved the goal of zero non-hazardous waste sent to landfill, mirroring the achievement of its North American sites.

More than three-quarters of the company's global factory network no longer sends such waste to landfill, with similar zero-waste targets achieved in countries such as Argentina and Indonesia. By contrast, only 20 percent of its factories had met this goal three years ago.

Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Unilever's chief supply chain officer, said: "We are on track to hit our revised target of 100 percent of sites by 2015, five years ahead of the original 2020 target."

Under the company's sustainability plans, by 2020 total waste sent for disposal will fall below 2008 levels, despite the business growing significantly since that time.

The progress made so far has been achieved with minimal need for capital expenditure and has in fact helped to avoid cumulative disposal costs of more than 17 million euros (13.99 million pounds).

Earlier this month, Unilever chief executive officer Paul Polman called on the world's business community to take unified and decisive action to tackle the growing threat posed by climate change.