MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—Consumers today are inundated with green messages that can be confusing to the average person, as they sift through mounds of technical and scientific data to figure out what’s really green and what is or is not easily biodegradable.
In an effort to educate consumers, Concept Amenities, an Australian manufacturer of hotel bathroom toiletries, has taken steps to simplify the message that biodegradable products dissolve easily in the environment, without destroying nature, by launching a short 90-second educational video featuring Mikey the Microbe; a green cartoon character who gobbles landfill waste including Concept Amenities’ biodegradable amenity bottles.
The video opens by pointing out a few shocking facts like 5.5 billion hotel toiletry bottles and caps are disposed in landfill every year—where they sit for more than 500 years. The segment goes on to explain the biodegradation process, in language the average consumer understands, including how biodegradable consumables eventually break down to carbon dioxide, water and humus with the help of microorganisms like Mikey the Microbe.
YouTube Video Posted
While the video, currently posted on YouTube, is aimed at educating hospitality professionals whose purchasing criteria includes environmental solutions for hotel properties, Concept Amenities has also created a Facebook Fan page and My Space and Twitter accounts for Mikey the Microbe, where anyone, even kids, can communicate with Mikey and ask environmental questions.
“It’s a grassroots educational effort,” says Steve Duggan, global director of marketing and communications for Concept Amenities. “By simplifying the message, we’ve taken the guesswork out of purchasing decisions. For those in a product category that historically contributes to landfill excess, there’s a responsibility to employ sustainable solutions to help reduce waste.”
“Our commitment to minimizing environmental harm has led us to discover there is really only one shade of green,” Duggan goes on to clarify. “And, if kids are able to learn how to better care for the planet, through Mikey the Microbe, then we’ve really done our job by educating the next generation.”
Go to Concept Amenities.
