PROFILE
plastic will be sold in Carrefour – one of the biggest retailers in the world – in France . The aim is that by the end of 2018 , in Europe , more than half a million bottles a year ( which amounts to 90 percent of all P & G hair care brand bottles sold in Europe ) will include up to 25 percent PCR plastic .
While the company has in fact been using PCR plastic in packaging for 25 years , this announcement comes at a time when its use is to be vastly expanded across various brands . The Head & Shoulders project alone will require 2,600 tons of recycled plastic a year , and one of P & G ’ s corporate 2020 goals is to double the tonnage of PCR plastic used . Aside from anything else , this will mean far less waste being swept into the sea , which has been a huge concern ; the Ellen MacArthur Foundation stated that there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean ( by weight ) by 2050 if huge changes are not made .
I spoke with Virginie Helias , Vice President of Global Sustainability at P & G , on the day that the Head & Shoulders project was announced . My first question is an obvious one – how was this news received ?
“ Overwhelmingly positively ,” Helias replies with a laugh . “ I was so thrilled . Our President [ Europe Selling & Market Operations ] Gary Coombe already posted about it on LinkedIn , and it received over 2,000 likes within a couple of hours . People are saying ‘ why are you doing this now ? Why not before ? You should have done this earlier , this is amazing ’. It ’ s been very positive , but the biggest impact has been within the company because everyone wants to do it , and it ’ s almost as if we ’ ve given permission to our staff to branch out and do things like this . It ’ s quite an unusual project and it hasn ’ t been easy , but this is the beginning of a new era .”
Why now ? The reason it hasn ’ t been done before , Helias says , is because something like this takes a great deal of planning and development before it can be rolled out to the public : “ Imagine you ’ re