Police arrest 18 people after Greenpeace activists blockade Unilever headquarters

Chief Superintendent Bill Duffy of the City of London Police said on Thursday: “Today at around 5.30am we were alerted to protesters outside Unilever House in New Bridge Street. A police operation is underway.”

“So far, 11 people have been arrested on suspicion of stopping under Section 1 of the Public Order Act 2023. A further seven people have been arrested on suspicion of trespassing.”

Members of the environmental group chained themselves to barricades made of giant Dove products, one of Unilever's biggest brands. The logo of each product had been changed to a dead dove.

Protesters unfurled a banner at the front of the building with the phrase “True beauty is not so toxic” printed above an image of a Dove label.

Greenpeace protesters are demanding that Unilever ban the use of single-use plastic from its factories and eliminate it completely within a decade, starting with plastic bags, which they say are “almost impossible to collect and recycle.”

Will McCallum, joint executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “Unilever’s plastic pollution is devastating the planet and harming communities.

“They hide behind the clean, respectable face of brands like Dove, but we are here today to expose that facade and show the ugly truth behind it.”

He added: “We will not let up. Today's action may be over, but our campaign against Unilever will intensify unless a proper plan is implemented to phase out single-use plastic.”

Greenpeace UK called on Unilever at these UN negotiations to support a treaty that would limit and phase out plastic production by at least 75 percent by 2040.

According to a Greenpeace International report published in November last year, Unilever was the largest corporate seller of environmentally harmful plastic bags – small, disposable plastic packaging containing consumer goods – selling 1,700 of them every second in 2023.

A Unilever spokesperson said: “Our purpose at Unilever is clear: to end plastic pollution through reduction, recirculation and collaboration. We recognise the important role we play in making this goal a reality – that’s why plastic is one of our four sustainability priorities.

“We have already reduced our use of virgin plastic by 18% and increased our use of recycled plastic to 22% – making us one of the companies making the most progress in reducing our virgin plastic packaging footprint, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

“But our work is far from over. Our updated plastics targets are ambitious and focus on the areas we know will have the biggest impact – such as further reducing our virgin plastics use and developing alternatives to hard-to-recycle flexible plastic packaging such as plastic bags.

“We are committed to working with industry partners and other stakeholders to develop viable and scalable alternatives to reduce plastic waste.

“However, tackling a challenge of this magnitude requires stronger systemic changes. That is why we are calling for a UN agreement on plastic pollution that sets legally binding global rules and takes into account the entire life cycle of plastic.”