By Wallace Mawire
Greenpeace Africa activists and concerned community members gathered at Unilever’s headquarters in Durban to protest the multinational corporation’s contribution to plastic pollution across Africa.
Protesters displayed Unilever-branded plastic waste to symbolise the corporation’s disregard for sustainable practices.
Hellen Kahaso Dena, Project Lead for the Pan-African Plastics Project at Greenpeace Africa, who was present at the protest, emphasised the imbalance between Unilever’s profits and the actual human cost of plastic pollution: “While Unilever products are minting billions annually, the real cost of plastic pollution is paid by waste pickers and frontline communities in Africa, far away from their headquarters.”
Holding banners, the demonstrators called on Unilever to take immediate action to reduce its reliance on single-use plastics. The demonstration highlighted the environmental and social costs of plastic waste, disproportionately affecting marginalised communities across the continent.
“Unilever must take full responsibility for their plastic footprint and transition to sustainable packaging alternatives,” Dena added.
“We need Unilever to lead the way by cutting production of problematic plastics, starting with sachets, and investing in refill and reuse systems. The urgency of reducing plastic production by at least 75% by 2040 cannot be overstated.”
According to the Break Free from Plastic Movement, Unilever is one of the worst plastic polluters globally and the largest seller of high-polluting plastic sachets, selling over 53 billion sachets in 2023—equivalent to 1,700 sachets per second. Despite their sustainability promises, Unilever has failed to meet its plastics production reduction target for five years. Research indicates that at the current pace, Unilever will not fully transition to reuse and refill until the year 3000, a timeline that’s far too slow given the urgent need to address the plastic crisis.
Greenpeace Africa demands that Unilever commit to a clear plan to reduce plastic production, shift towards reusable packaging support the call for a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty and the welfare of waste pickers on the frontlines of this crisis.
