Sustainable Biz - Magazine - Page 30
Product packaging delivers better experience
for people with reduced environmental
impact. For Global Recycling Day, Proctor
and Gamble reflecting on what they’ve
accomplished and where they will continue
to focus as we help create a circular future
where materials are recycled and remade
instead of becoming waste.
The teams who design our products and
packaging have a clear path ahead, guided
by our consumers’ needs and Ambition 2030
goals. They seek to design 100% of consumer
packaging to be recyclable or reusable, and
reduce our use of virgin petroleum resin by
50%* per unit of production by 2030.
Innovation, smart design
and collaboration will keep
us moving forward toward a
circular future with less waste
and more reuse.
What drives our people every
day on this journey?
P
roctor and Gamble believe they
can unlock more worth from
packaging materials long after
their first use. They are focused on
delivering impact at three levels:
•
Reducing footprint
•
Enabling people to reduce their
footprint
•
Helping industry reduce its
footprint through solutions that are
scalable and sustainable
In addition to designing the product
packaging to be recyclable, here are
examples of “reduce, reuse, replace,
recycle” strategy, shared through
products you may have at home.
Reuse – In the Kitchen
Washing dishes is a chore that
most people want done quickly and
conveniently. The result lies in refillable
packaging and a Dawn formulation
designed to release suds without the
need for water to activate them. Spray,
Wipe, Rinse. Dawn Powerwash uses
25% post-consumer recycled plastic
and allows people to refill and reuse the
spray pump for future uses — all while
delivering on a more effective clean
without a sink full of water.
Replace — In the Bathroom
Proctor and Gamble swapped out plastic
for recyclable cardboard in premium
refillable Gillette and Venus packs.
Reduce — In the Shower
Not only did they reformulate Head and
Shoulders shampoo to only include nine
ingredients, they also reduced the bottle’s
plastic by 45%. What’s more, people roll it
up like a tube of toothpaste to get out all
the product and create a more compact
item in their recycling bin. Additionally,
Herbal Essences has upgraded its line-up
of shampoo and conditioner packaging
to bottles with 25% less plastic than
previous versions.
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The move reduces plastic waste while
removing a key tension of the previous
design — it was hard to open without
scissors. Now, most of our razors are
sold in this new package, held in with a
strong and resilient pulp fibre tray that’s
made with Forest Stewardship Council™
certified paper.Ariel detergent pods now
come in a cardboard box featuring an
ergonomic opening for easy access as
you start a load. The package eliminates
S U S TA I N A B L E B I Z M A G A Z I N E
MAY 2025
plastic and is made from 95% postconsumer recycled material.
Recycle
Through all of this work, they continue
to design packaging for recyclability and
reuse, choosing materials that better
enable our packaging to be captured
at recycling facilities so they can be
reprocessed and renewed.Engineers are
inventing and licensing new recycling
processes like VersoVita™ that improves
the quality of recycled polypropylene
content so more can be recycled. It’s all
part of the journey to close the loop and
bring high-quality materials back into
our supply chain.
Proctor and Gamble know it will take
more than product and packaging
changes to create a circular future.
That’s why they’re working with global
partners — Circulate Capital, Delterra,
The Recycling Partnership and the
Alliance to End Plastic Waste — who
all support programs that increase
the collection of materials, improve
sorting at recycling facilities and enable
innovation so less is wasted, more is
recycled and more is reused.
