Industry News: Aveda Cap-Recycling Program Collects More Than 50,000 Lb of Plastic
By collecting plastic caps and reusing their resin, Aveda has found a way to clean up the world’s oceans—one cap at a time.
The company has created a program to collect and recycle plastic bottle caps and will use the recycled material in its packaging. The Caps Recycling Program is the first of its kind in the United States.
At the time this article went to press, Aveda had collected more than 50,000 lb of plastic through the program. Once collected, caps are sent to a plastics recycler to be ground down. The plastic resin is then molded into new plastic caps. Aveda experts have worked closely with suppliers to develop ways to make new caps and containers from the recycled caps.
The first dispensing closure to be made from the program’s recycled caps will appear on Aveda’s Vintage Clove shampoo, launching in September.The first dispensing closure made from the recycled caps will be used for the September relaunch of Aveda’s limited-edition Vintage Clove shampoo. This shampoo was the brand’s very first shampoo and initially launched in 1978.
“Aveda’s Caps Recycling Program was created to help combat the devastating effects of plastic cap pollution and to increase awareness around this critical issue,” says Chuck Bennett, Aveda’s vice president of earth and community care. “Recycling caps is a meaningful form of environmental activism. Every cap that we prevent from becoming trash is one less piece of plastic in the mouth of a baby seal, penguin, or turtle.”
The program’s concept was conceived three years ago. John Delfausse, vice president of packaging for The Estée Lauder Companies and chief environmental officer for its packaging team, says that he realized there was no recycling infrastructure in place to collect bottle caps.
Caps for Aveda’s collection program are shipped by the box-full to the company’s headquarters in Blaine, MN. Elementary schools, Girl Scouts, and U.S. marines are among those sending caps to Aveda.The company began by enlisting the help of Estée Lauder employees and a few elementary schools in New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Students were educated about the ocean’s plastic crisis and were encouraged to collect all types of plastic caps, from packaging ranging from beauty packages to soda, water, and detergent bottles.
Today, 61 community schools nationwide participate in the program. The program’s message is even spreading around the world through the Internet. “We have marines in Afghanistan and Girl Scouts on army bases in Japan who are now participating,” says Dean Maune, executive director, Aveda Package Development. An article in the April 2008 issue of Shape magazine inspired readers to send in an estimated 10,000 lb of plastic.
“Our goal is to inspire long-term change in how the beauty industry approaches package design,” says Dominique Conseil, president of Aveda. “Aveda’s Caps Recycling Program is a first step in that direction and helps set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility.”
Join Aveda’s efforts. Encourage everyone at your company to participate in Aveda’s Caps Recycling Program! Find out how to get started.