The limited edition rHDPE bottle will go on sale in summer 2017 to consumers at the French supermarket chain Carrefour and involves the largest production run of recyclable bottles made with recycled beach plastic, the company says.
Unveiling the bottle at a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland yesterday (19 January), P&G also pledged to use up to 25% post-consumer recycled plastic in around half a billion bottles across its Pantene and Head & Shoulders ranges by the end of 2018.
P&G is working with consumer recycling firm Terracycle and Suez on the production of the recycled plastic bottles – which it is claimed will involve the supply of around 2,300 tonnes of recycled HDPE per year. The material will be sourced from post-consumer sources, but may also involve some beach plastic, Terracycle has confirmed.
Announcing the initiative, Virginie Helias, P&G’s vice president of global sustainability, said: “At P&G, we believe that actions speak louder than words. The increased use of post-consumer recycled plastic across our hair care portfolio of brands, demonstrates our continued commitment to driving real change. The Head & Shoulders recyclable shampoo bottle made with beach plastic is a world’s first in the hair care category.
“Increasing the use of recycled plastic in the packaging of our flagship brands, like Pantene and Head & Shoulders, makes it easier for consumers to choose more sustainable products, without any trade-offs. So while we’re proud of what we’ve done and what we’re doing, we know there is much more work ahead.”
Partnership
Commenting on the partnership, Jean-Marc Boursier, Suez group senior executive vice president for recycling & recovery in Europe, said: “This partnership between Suez, TerraCycle and P&G represents an exciting step in the creation of a world first for consumers, a recyclable shampoo bottle made of beach plastics. We hope that other organisations will continue to partner with different providers in order to deliver major environmental changes in this industry and hopefully across other industries too.
“With nine dedicated plastic facilities across Europe, Suez is already producing 170,000 tons of high quality recycled polymers.”
Tom Szaky, chief executive of TerraCycle, said: “This partnership represents an important step for TerraCycle. We are proud to be working with one of the world’s largest brands to create a breakthrough product. Creating the world’s first recyclable shampoo bottle with beach plastics is a start of an important journey. With the circular economy gaining more traction, we hope that other global brands will work with green suppliers and use their influence to drive change for the benefit of the environment.”
Davos
Plastic waste has been among the talking points at the Davos forum, which has also seen the launch of the ‘New Plastics Economy’ report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation backed by companies including the Coca-Cola Company, Danone, MARS, Unilever, and Veolia.
Unilever also this week pledged that all of the plastic packaging from its goods will be ‘fully reusable, recyclable or compostable’ by 2025 (see letsrecycle.com story).
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