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Inspiring young people to learn about plastic and packaging

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Unilever in the UK and Ireland has partnered with The Economist Educational Foundation to create a free workbook to help young people learn about plastics and packaging.

Children reading

Globally, Unilever has committed to halving our use of virgin plastic in our packaging, to collect and process more plastic than we sell and to ensure that all our packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable… all by 2025.

Closing the loop on plastic and keeping it out of the environment is key to our progress on plastics. Outside of our business everyone has a role to play. Which is why we’ve partnered with The Economist Educational Foundation, the Economist’s charitable arm who create free resources for schools with the aim of encouraging young students to learn more about current affairs, to form opinions on them and to drive change.

Plastics, packaging + sustainability poster

Young people today will be the scientists, innovators, shoppers and leaders of tomorrow, and that is why we have partnered with the Economist Educational Trust to create a workbook all about plastics and packaging to encourage young people between the ages of 9-14 to think about:

  • Why we use plastic
  • The role plastic does have in our society
  • What more could and should be done to keep plastic out of the environment

The workbook is completely free to download and share. Click here to get your copy

The workbook created provides facts rather than opinions and explores the different uses for plastic and perspectives that focus on where and why we use plastic. We hope that this will give young people the confidence to talk about plastic and encourage them to take action to help reduce their own plastic waste, as well as to ask the questions and speak out to help drive wider change. One of the activities encourages users to choose an audience, such as a school or local business, and reach out to them with ideas that will help them to address the issue of plastic waste.

This resource is just one way that Unilever in the UK and Ireland is working to tackle plastic waste as part of our #GetPlasticWise campaign. We believe that to truly tackle plastic waste in the UK & Ireland a collaborative effort across the full value chain is needed, from supplier and manufacturer through to the consumer and waste management companies.

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