A total of 16 activists have been arrested so far for blockading the entrances to Unilever House, in protest over the firm’s ongoing failure to tackle their overwhelming plastic pollution and its recent sustainability rollback.
Nine of the activists, who had locked themselves onto barricades made from giant Dove deodorants and a subverted ‘Dead Dove’ logo, were cut out by police with angle grinders and arrested for locking-on under new powers in the Public Order Act – the first time Greenpeace activists have been arrested for the new offense. A further 17 activists currently remain locked-on.
The other seven activists were also arrested for scaling the walls of the building and affixing a huge 13 x 8 meter canvas to the facade. The artwork displays a powerful advertising subversion featuring a young girl peeling back Dove’s iconic ‘Real Beauty’ branding to reveal real examples of the toxic plastic waste churned out by the brand.
Will McCallum, co-executive director at Greenpeace UK said:
“The arrest of these activists goes to show how big polluters like Unilever are hiding behind the government’s new gagging laws to carry on with their destructive behaviour. It is them, not peaceful protesters, that should be held to account.
“Whether it’s devastating flooding or toxic fumes from waste burning, the billions of pieces of plastic waste they’re pumping into the world are exacting a toll on communities far from this London office. There’s no ‘Real Beauty’ in the real harm Dove and Unilever are causing.
“We won’t let up – today’s action may be over but our campaign against Unilever will continue to escalate unless it puts a proper plan in place to phase-out single-use plastic.
“Unilever must stop selling plastic sachets now, commit to phasing out single-use plastic within a decade and advocate for this same level of ambition at the final round of UN Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in November.”
The action is the latest escalation in Greenpeace’s ongoing campaign against the corporate giant and comes after the announcement of a major rollback of their plastic reduction targets earlier this year. It also comes ahead of the final round of negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty in November, where Unilever will play a critical role as chair of the Business Coalition.
Twenty years ago this month, Dove launched its iconic “Real Beauty” campaign, positioning it as a brand with a social and environmental ‘purpose’. But Dove, and its parent company Unilever, remain one of the largest plastic polluters globally.
A Greenpeace International report released late last year showed that Unilever was the largest corporate seller of the super-polluting plastic sachets, selling the equivalent of 1700 a second. An estimated 6.4 billion sachets were produced by Unilever signature brand Dove alone in 2022, making up over 10% of Unilever’s total sachets sales.
An accompanying field investigation by Greenpeace South East Asia and Greenpeace UK revealed shocking images of Dove’s sachet waste polluting beaches and waterways in the Philippines and Indonesia. Plastic sachets are infamous for being near impossible to collect and recycle, and for exacerbating flooding when they enter the environment and jam local waste systems and waterways.
Greenpeace is calling on Unilever to phase-out single-use plastic from its operations and transition to reuse in the next 10 years, starting with the worst offenders: plastic sachets. Greenpeace is also calling on the company to advocate for this same level of ambition at the UN Global Plastics Treaty by backing a treaty which caps and phases down plastic production by at least 75% by 2040.
