Reducing Packaging Waste on America Recycles Day

By Andrea Rudert, associate director – Corporate Responsibility

Today’s America Recycles Day, a nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the U.S. It’s a program of nonprofit Keep America Beautiful, which Clorox proudly supports because we believe action is needed to address the impact from plastics accumulating around the world, including in our oceans and beaches.

Previously, we’ve shared tips on how we can individually take steps to create less waste by making incremental changes in our daily lives. Many of our dedicated employees have actively taken steps to adopt a zero-waste mindset at home and at our company, where they’ve helped 15 of our sites achieve zero-waste-to-landfill status. 

The volunteer eco team at our Atlanta West Home Care plant

For true change to happen, we must match employee enthusiasm with corporate commitment. As part of the new corporate IGNITE Strategy we launched in October, Clorox has announced new commitments to reduce plastic and waste in our products and packaging while continuing to make our products more recyclable. These include:

  • 50% combined reduction in virgin plastic and fiber packaging by 2030
  • 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging by 2025
  • Double plastic PCR in packaging by 2030 (+50% by 2025)

We took another step in our commitment to fight packaging waste recently by becoming a signatory of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, a vision of a circular economy for plastic in which plastic never becomes waste or pollution.

These actions and commitments reflect our business approach that we call Good Growth — growth that’s profitable, sustainable and responsible.

A dumpster dive in Costa Rica was an important step on the path to zero waste.