Dove is switching to recycled plastic bottles and ditching plastic soap wrappers

Dove is replacing its plastic bottles with recycled ones in a bid to reduce its waste.

The Unilever-owned beauty giant aims to reduce its virgin plastic use by more than 20,500 tonnes per year with a series of new sustainable initiatives. 

By the end of this year, Dove will start the process of launching new, 100% recycled plastic (PCR) bottles (where technically feasible), across all its product ranges in North America and Europe. The brand has also announced that, as of next year, its signature beauty bar single packs will be plastic-free globally. It is working on an alternative, plastic-free material to replace the outer wrap of the beauty bar multipacks. Finally, the company will also leverage the ‘minim' technology behind its new reusable, refillable, stainless steel format deodorant sticks, to further reduce its plastic use.

"At Dove, we are proud to have more than 100 initiatives ongoing around the world dedicated to tackling plastic waste," said Richard Slater, Unilever Chief R&D Officer. "But as one of the biggest beauty brands in the world, we have a responsibility to accelerate our progress even further. Today's announcements are an important step in our work to transform how we produce, use and dispose of plastic packaging. By making this move, we aim to drive the global recycling industry to collect more waste plastic and make more recycled plastic available for use.''

Earlier this month, Unilever announced plans to halve the amount of virgin plastic it uses across its portfolio by the year 2025. This will be achieved by eliminating more than 100,000 tonnes of its current plastic packaging footprint (estimated to be around 700,000 tonnes) via 'absolute plastic reduction', while the remainder of the target will be achieved by using recycled plastics. The company will also endeavor to collect and process around 600,000 tonnes of plastic annually by 2025.