MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Unilever continues to double down on its plastic sustainability ambitions and is scaling its impact with the announcement of a grant opportunity for organizations that will help combat plastic waste in the Philippines.
Alongside its efforts in reducing the use of virgin plastics and developing solutions for hard-to-recycle flexible plastic packaging materials, including sachets, Unilever and its partners have established the CIRCLE Alliance to award grant funding to qualified enterprises in the Philippines and other countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia to introduce innovations and improve existing practices in plastic waste collection, processing, and recycling.
Catalyzing Inclusive, Resilient, and Circular Local Economies or the CIRCLE Alliance was founded by Unilever, the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID), and Ernst and Young Global Ltd (EY). The collaborative platform aims to support women’s economic empowerment, improve livelihoods, and protect the environment by accelerating the development of circular economies.
“CIRCLE’s collaborative model of enterprise acceleration – delivered through a mix of grant funding and bespoke business support – will help scale both new and existing solutions for packaging circularity, whether that’s driving collection and recycling, or reuse–refill models,” Rebecca Marmot, Chief Sustainability Officer and a member of the Unilever Leadership Council, shared. “Crucially, it will support small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs that offer impactful, market-based solutions but are currently too small to work at the scale we need.”
Aside from its active participation in the CIRCLE Alliance, Unilever also continues its long-standing waste collection efforts in Metro Manila and nearby provinces through its flagship program Misis Walastik (Wise on Plastic). This program’s goal is to address plastic pollution through reduction, circulation, and collaboration.
“The momentum for solutions and collaborations to help fix the plastic waste issue is gaining even more speed. With the Circle Alliance across Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, Unilever is putting its expertise and networks to help build a fair and equitable circular economy for plastics in the Philippines and hopefully across Southeast Asia,” Rondell Torres, Philippines Sustainability Lead and Circle Alliance Lead for Southeast Asia, remarked.
Enterprises intending to apply for the CIRCLE Alliance grant can send in their application until October 04, 2024 through this link. Unilever believes that the CIRCLE Alliance will make a meaningful impact and create value for emerging circular solutions and recognizes the socioeconomic impact of the plastics value chain.
