Unilever is launching a new program, “Rinse. Recycle. Reimagine.,” to remind Americans to recycle their bathroom product packaging. According to the company, its recent Unilever Bathroom Recycling Index survey found that while a majority of Americans are aware that empty bath and beauty bottles are recyclable, less than 34% report always bringing these items to the bin. As a result, common bathroom product packaging like shampoo, body wash, and lotion bottles could be more likely to end up in landfills than their kitchen counterparts, resulting in nearly 29 million tons of plastics sent to landfills each year.
Additional Unilever Bathroom Recycling Index Findings include:
- Fueling the bathroom recycling gap is a combination of confusion, misinformation, and a bit of skepticism. While the majority of Americans know where they should be putting their empty bottles, 42% claim that they don’t recycle because they aren’t sure an item is eligible for recycling. Additionally, more than a quarter (27%) of Americans are not convinced their recycled items can actually become something new.
- There are quite a few things Americans would do before walking their empty bath and beauty bottles to the recycling bin. One in five (22%) Americans wouldn’t walk across their home to recycle a bath or beauty bottle. In fact, Americans are more likely to go the distance to get a drink when thirsty, charge their phone, or answer a phone call than walk an empty plastic bottle from the bathroom to the recycling bin.
- Some cities have better bathroom recycling habits than others. Of the major U.S. metropolitan cities, Philadelphia came out on top demonstrating the best bathroom recycling habits with 52% reporting that they always recycle in the bathroom, while Atlanta ranked last with only 23% reporting that they always recycle in the bathroom.
Developed in partnership with Keep America Beautiful and the Ad Council’s “I Want to Be Recycled” campaign, “Rinse. Recycle. Reimagine.” will feature socially driven content aimed at educating Americans on how, through recycling, empty bath and beauty bottles can fuel the development of recycled packaging for new bathroom products, or take on new life to return as hairbrushes, backpacks, or even backyard play sets.
“Our scale and sheer volume of products present in American bathrooms puts us in a unique position to take on this issue,” says Gina Boswell, Executive Vice President of Personal Care, Unilever North America. “The average American household has eight products in plastic bottles in their bathroom. If we’re able to inspire those millions of people to recycle their empty body wash or lotion bottles, this small action can bring about transformational change.”
The “Rinse. Recycle. Reimagine.” program is part of the Unilever brightFuture initiative in support of Unilever’s purpose-driven business model, the Unilever Sustainability Plan (USLP), which aims to increase its positive social impact while reducing its environmental impact. Specifically, while many of Unilever’s bath and beauty products are packaged in recycled material, Unilever has set an aggressive goal to increase the recycled material content in its packaging to maximum possible levels by the year 2020. However, there is currently not enough recycled plastic resin available to do so, and in order to achieve this goal Unilever needs Americans to recycle more.
