Chemistry, Materials & Packaging
Garnier, DoSomething.org Aim to Divert 10M Personal Care Empties from Landfill

Nearly half of Americans do not recycle their beauty and personal care products, accounting for a significant amount of landfill waste. Garnier and DoSomething.org are hoping to change that with their new Rinse, Recycle, Repeat campaign and college campus competition, which aims to educate consumers about the importance of recycling beauty product empties.

The partners have tapped Youtuber Remi Cruz of MissRemiAshtene and RemiLife to serve as the face of the campaign, which includes a public service announcement about recycling her own beauty products.

The goal of the campaign is to tap into the #empties social conversation and educate young people on the importance of bathroom recycling. The campaign will demonstrate how recycling can keep recycling beauty product packaging out of landfills and be used to create green gardens within local communities. Garnier hopes that the campaign will be able to divert 10 million empties from landfills by the end of 2017.

Aria Finger
speaker
at
SB'17 Detroit“We’re excited to show young people the positive impact they can make on the planet and their community, simply by recycling their empties from the bathroom,” said Aria Finger, CEO at DoSomething.org. “We’re proud to be working with Garnier, a brand that continuously demonstrates its commitment to sustainable beauty, to give these products new purpose.”

To participate in the national Rinse, Recycle, Repeat campaign, individuals can:

• Sign up online at DoSomething.org/rinse, decorate a bathroom recycling bin and share a picture with DoSomething.org on the “Prove It” page online or by texting RINSE to 38383 to be entered to win a $5,000 scholarship.
• Once the bin is filled with 10 pounds of beauty empties, participants can print a free shipping label to send their empties to TerraCycle — the world’s leader in the collection and repurposing of hard-to-recycle post-consumer waste — to be responsibly recycled.

On April 1, a college competition will kick off on 50 college campuses across the U.S. to collect the most empties. The college team that collects the most empties will be rewarded with a garden for their community, furnished by Garnier and TerraCycle.

“DoSomething is an incredible organization that has made significant strides to impact social change through connecting young people who share a passion for making the world a better place. We are very proud to partner with DoSomething to raise awareness around the positive impact of bathroom recycling on the environment,” said Ali Goldstein, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Garnier.

“We have been working with TerraCycle for six years and through this broader collaboration our hope is to significantly increase the amount of beauty product empties that are diverted from landfills and recycled into useful materials to build green gardens,” Goldstein added.

The Garnier Beauty Recycling Program, in partnership with TerraCycle, is the world's first-ever beauty and personal care recycling program which facilitates the collection and recycling of beauty empties that otherwise cannot be recycled by providing complimentary shipping of empties to TerraCycle. Since its inception, the Garnier Beauty Recycling Program has diverted more than eight million empties out of landfills. These empties were turned into pelletized lumber for raised garden beds, benches, trash receptacles and other elements for community gardens.

Garnier has donated five green gardens to organizations in New Orleans, Detroit and New York City, with three more planned in 2017. These gardens have engaged hundreds of thousands of individuals in the surrounding communities, and many of them grow fruit and vegetables for local schools in impoverished areas where children do not have access to nutritional lunches.