CINCINNATI—The Procter & Gamble Company celebrated World Oceans Day last week and reiterated its commitment to find solutions so that no P&G packaging finds its way to the world’s oceans. This builds on the company’s leadership efforts in reducing its use of plastics in its packaging, increasing the amount of recycled plastic it is using and helping create the right infrastructures to enable recycling.
Currently, 86 percent of P&G’s packaging is recyclable, and the company has strong, ongoing efforts to further increase recyclability. It recently announced the creation of an innovative technology, that it has licensed to PureCycle Technologies, that can recycle polypropylene into nearly new condition which has the potential to revolutionize the plastics recycling industry. P&G’s new environmental goals, dubbed Ambition 2030, include two packaging goals—that 100 percent of packaging will be recyclable or reusable and that it will find solutions so no P&G packaging will find its way to the world’s oceans.
While at the Sustainable Brands Conference in Vancouver last week, the company jointly hosted sessions with the Ocean Project and its Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) to get perspective from the next generation by posing the plastics challenge to local students. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the students conducted panel sessions moderated by Sustainable Brands leaders and then presented their recommendations on the final day of the conference.
Force for Good, Force for Growth
“We know we can be a force for good and a force for growth,” said Virginie Helias, Vice President, P&G Global Sustainability. “P&G brands serve 5 billion people and if we can help them reduce their plastic consumption just a little, that adds up to something big. We know there is a lot of work to be done, and we are working with the best in the industry to make sure that we find solutions that will help halt the flow of plastics into our oceans.”
Partnership and collaboration make up the core of the P&G strategy as no one company can do it alone. P&G has partnered with the following organizations to reduce its plastic consumption and advance recycling: The Ocean Project, Trash Free Seas Alliance, TerraCycle, The Closed Loop Fund, WRAP, The Recycling Partnership, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
“The Ocean Project is proud to have P&G as a corporate sponsor to help further our mission in engaging organizations and young people in solutions to help protect our shared ocean,” said Bill Mott, Executive Director of The Ocean Project. “We all need a healthy ocean to survive. World Oceans Day is an ideal time to come together and collaborate on ways to conserve and restore our vital resources by halting the flow of plastics into our oceans and waterways.”
