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“Loving the planet more should not mean caring for your hair less. For eco-friendly hair care shopping, refill now at the All Things Hair Refillery.”

The Philippines is listed among the world’s worst offenders on marine plastic pollution. As consumer demand grows, exacerbated by the country’s sachet economy, single-use plastics ending up in local waters have become even more prevalent. About 1/3 of which are sourced from FMCG companies. While Unilever has plans to roll out more sustainable packaging in the coming years, the Philippines’ Hair team felt a pressing need to address the issue on plastics and reduce its environmental footprint as soon as possible.

All Things Hair Refillery (“ATH Refillery”) is a pioneering model that provides an alternative way to sell Unilever brands, at discounted prices, while promoting eco-friendly shopping. Partnering with the country’s top mall chain for scale, Unilever launched 3 refilling stations in key areas of the metro. Each one sold the best-selling brands in the portfolio and asked consumers to refill their clean, matched containers in 3 easy steps: refill, weigh, pay. Every station also functions as an upcycling hub, where consumers can drop off their used plastic sachets/bottles helping Unilever create a full circular economy for plastic packaging.

As the pilot has commenced, it has encouraged the Philippines government to create industry standards for sustainable refilling models, that can be used by the whole industry. To date, Unilever Philippines team has shared the methodology and learnings to 15 other markets globally, hopefully making refilling and sustainability commonplace not just in the Philippines, but in the world.