{"id":80567,"date":"2026-01-07T02:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=80567"},"modified":"2026-02-26T22:35:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:35:29","slug":"what-consumed-reveals-about-unilever-and-why-the-company-must-break-its-sachet-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/80567\/what-consumed-reveals-about-unilever-and-why-the-company-must-break-its-sachet-habit\/","title":{"rendered":"What Consumed reveals about Unilever and why the company must break its sachet habit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2025, journalist Saabira Chaudhuri released Consumed: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic<\/em><\/a>, an investigation into how global consumer goods companies built entire business models around disposability. One chapter in particular stands out: how Unilever<\/strong> helped turn the single-use sachet into a dominant packaging format and how that decision continues to fuel plastic pollution on a global scale.<\/p>\n\n

\"Nescafe
Residents of a coastal community in Bataan Province are using brand parodies to show how plastic sachet manufacturers are bringing \u201creal harm\u201d to Filipinos. The groups are calling for companies to stop producing sachets, and for the government to regulate single use plastics (SUPs), starting with instituting a national ban.
\u00a9 Geric Cruz \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

As negotiations toward a Global Plastics Treaty intensify, the insights in Consumed<\/em> remain urgently relevant, and increasingly uncomfortable for Unilever.<\/p>\n\n

How Unilever drove the sachet crisis<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

A business model engineered around disposability<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Chaudhuri shows how Unilever\u2019s India arm industrialised the sachet, transforming a small local innovation into a global mass-market strategy. Sachets unlocked \u2018previously unreachable\u2019 low-income markets by enabling small, frequent purchases \u2014 turning low-cost items into a multi-billion-unit sales engine.<\/p>\n\n

This wasn\u2019t primarily about meeting consumer demand. It was about creating a profitable disposable business model<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

\"Plastic
Dove shampoo is seen in a local sari sari store in Manila, Philippines.
\u00a9 Jilson Tiu \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Marketing that reshaped behaviour<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Unilever\u2019s push didn\u2019t stop with packaging. The company invested heavily in rural outreach: mobile cinema vans, in-home demos, and campaigns presenting branded shampoo as \u2018modern\u2019 and aspirational. Traditional low-waste practices were displaced by single-use products designed to be thrown away after use. The company invested heavily in marketing tactics, and unfortunately they worked. <\/p>\n\n

\"Plastic
Riverside trash accumulated at the shores connected to Manila bay. The plastic trash is so dense, it formed a walkable moat, making it hard for the fishermen to move their boats. Tangos, Navotas.
\u00a9 Jilson Tiu \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The fallout: billions of sachets with nowhere to go<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Once sachets took off, the environmental consequences were immediate and severe. Tens of billions of sachets are used annually in India alone – almost none recycled, because they were never designed to be. Waste accumulates in waterways, drainage systems, and informal dumps, disproportionately affecting communities without formal waste services.<\/p>\n\n

Corporate dependence on sachets<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Chaudhuri argues that brands like Unilever are now locked into disposability. Despite sustainability promises, the company continues to rely on sachets for volume and margins, even as the pollution becomes impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace International\u2019s 2023 Unilever Uncovered<\/strong> report<\/a> found the company was on track to sell around 53 billion sachets in 2023<\/strong> – 1,700 every second<\/strong> – making it the world\u2019s biggest corporate seller of plastic sachets. What\u2019s more: less than 0.2% of Unilever\u2019s plastic packaging is reusable<\/strong>, demonstrating how far its business remains from a genuinely circular model.<\/p>\n\n

So where is Unilever in its sachet journey, now? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The company has so far\u2026<\/p>\n\n

\u2705 Scaled a packaging system it knew lacked any viable end-of-life solution
\u2705 Normalised sachets through aggressive marketing and behavioural engineering
\u2705 Exported that model to markets across Asia and beyond
\u2705 Lobbied against government policy like sachet bans<\/a>
\u2705 Continued to rely heavily on sachets, despite public pressure
\u2705 Acknowledged that sachets need addressing<\/a>, dating back over a decade
\u2705 Made some bold statements about seeking solutions
\u2705 Invested in pilot reuse and refill projects and R&D to test alternatives
\ud83c\udd87 Mapped out its path to transition away from sachets
\ud83c\udd87 Shown true accountability for the widespread harm it has caused to communities and ecosystems<\/p>\n\n

For a company that positions itself as a sustainability leader, the pace of progress towards real <\/em><\/strong>solutions to this massive social, environmental and reputational disaster needs to be faster. Sachet and single-use plastic packaging pollution is not a new problem. Unilever s customers, impacted communities, and the public have waited long enough for something better. <\/p>\n\n

\"Plastic
Joy Jabaga, a sari-sari store owner from Payatas sells refillable household cleaning items via the “Kuha sa Tingi” programme, which is supported by the local government in Quezon city, Philippines, in an effort to fight the plastic pollution as the city supports a zero waste circular economy.
\u00a9 Jilson Tiu \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The real alternative: Reuse is already working<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

While Consumed<\/em> explains how the world ended up awash in sachets, communities are demonstrating what genuine solutions look like.<\/p>\n\n

In Manila, Philippines, neighbourhood stores are already operating as reuse and refill hubs<\/strong>, offering affordable and accessible alternatives to sachets. These systems deliver consumer savings and retailer benefits while dramatically reducing waste. A pilot project in India called Beat The Sachet<\/a> yielded similar results replacing sachets with refillable shampoo bottles allowing access to refill services. This successful and replicable initiative, that prevented over 5,000 sachets from entering the waste stream, will launch a larger project in the first half of 2026 with the support of the REUSE Foundation<\/a>, and is being rolled out in other countries. Reuse pilots have existed and popped up all around the world. The reason they aren\u2019t expanding further or thriving in certain contexts isn\u2019t because there is a lack of interest or because the model flawed, but because corporations hadn\u2019t set them up to succeed and haven\u2019t invested meaningfully and across sectors to support the policy change and concerted effort needed to properly support the reuse revolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\"Plastic
A Greenpeace Philippines activist picks up a piece of plastic trash from the company Dove around Freedom Island at Las Pinas, Philippines. This wetland part of Manila bay called Las Pi\u00f1as \u2013 Para\u00f1aque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA) is a 175 hectare protected area. It is always filled with plastic trash that comes from the ocean. The amount of plastic trash here does not stop even with the continuous shore clean up by various groups.
\u00a9 Jilson Tiu \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Unilever must change course<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Successful reuse and refill models show that sachets aren\u2019t a necessity. They\u2019re a corporate choice \u2014 one with deeply inequitable impacts. Saabira Chaudhuri\u2019s Consumed<\/em> exposes how Unilever helped build a throwaway system that communities worldwide are now forced to live with. Shifting off sachets could very well take just as much intention as convincing people to shift to them, but if Unilever has proven anything, it\u2019s that it\u2019s capable of shifting a market. <\/p>\n\n

The next chapter is up to Unilever\u2019s leadership. <\/strong>To align with public expectations, environmental responsibility, and the direction of the Global Plastics Treaty, Unilever must:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  • Commit to a global, time-bound phase-out of sachets<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Invest in reuse and refill systems<\/strong> at a scale matching its plastic footprint<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Support the reduction of out of control plastic production<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Shift innovation, design and marketing<\/strong> away from disposability<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Support a strong Global Plastics Treaty <\/strong>that prioritises reduction and reuse<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n

    Continuing the status quo is no longer credible or acceptable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

    Anna Diski is a Senior Campaigner from Greenpeace UK. Sarah King is a Senior Strategist for the Plastic Free Future campaign from <\/em>Greenpeace Canada. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n

    Note: This blog was updated on 26 January 2025 to include details about REUSE Foundation\u2019s Beat the Sachet project.<\/p>\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Brands like Unilever are now locked into disposability. Despite sustainability promises, the company continues to rely on sachets for volume and margins, even as the pollution becomes impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":80568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"Plastic Free Future","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69,73],"tags":[134,67],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-80567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-plastics","tag-consumption","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80567"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80888,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80567\/revisions\/80888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80567"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=80567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}