Mondi supports Unilever’s recycling ambitions

This drive to find new packaging solutions is part of Unilever's commitment that 100 percent of the plastic packaging used in its products is reusable, recyclable and compostable by 2025.

‘The most important step in eliminating plastic waste is preventing it getting into the environment in the first place. That’s why we are committed to collecting and processing more plastic packaging than we sell by 2025. Solutions from innovative partners throughout the value chain, such as Mondi, will help us on this journey,’ said Atahan Özgünay, R&D package development manager for Unilever’s Knorr and Lipton brands in North Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Russia.

Unilever approached Mondi Kalenobel in January 2018 with the challenge of replacing a multi material laminate, with a recyclable mono-material film alternative. Both firms Mondi collaborated to investigate the most suitable grade of special raw material and Mondi provided ongoing support during the design and implementation process. 

The new recyclable polypropylene (PP) mono-material is currently used in Turkey for Unilever’s dry soup powder range, produced at Mondi’s Turkish flexible packaging plant in Kalenobel.

The new packaging preserves the shelf-life of the food product and does not impact production machines. Furthermore, the packaging material designed by Jindal is certified as recyclable by the German Institut cyclos HTP.

‘We drive a customer-centric approach at Mondi, Eco-Solutions, where we work with our customers to understand their sustainability goals and deliver packaging that is sustainable by design. The challenge for us was getting the necessary oxygen and water vapor barriers and all other physical and chemical tolerances with the new mono-material at the same level as the current non-recyclable packaging. We also needed to offer a solution that could use the same production machine at Unilever's production sites,’ said Cüneyt Karci, key account manager at Mondi Kalenobel. 

Unilever is now considering expanding this packaging technology to other product ranges from the brand.