Drop Off Your Plastic Waste & Earn Shopping Perks with P&G and Watsons

More people are becoming environmentally conscious as pressing climate  issues arise on a global scale. This keeps multinational FMCG company  Procter & Gamble (P&G) Philippines committed to achieving its environmental  sustainability goals under P&G Ambition 2030. It aims to reduce carbon  footprint, conserve resources, and restore the world in the environmental areas  of Waste, Water, and Climate by enabling responsible consumption across their  brands, supply chain, employees and with external partners such as their  customers and consumers. 

In line with this, P&G partners with Watsons, the health and beauty care chain  store, and SM Cares, the corporate social responsibility arm of SM Supermalls,  to support SM’s Plastic Waste Collection Program (PWC) with NGO Plastic  Credit Exchange (PCX) and with program sponsors PricewaterhouseCoopers,  Nestle Philippines and Colgate-Palmolive Philippines. The program aims to  reduce plastic waste in landfills and oceans through proper plastic segregation  and disposal. The malls become venues for customers, tenants, and  surrounding offices to participate actively in the circular economy or the reuse  of plastic material. 

Collect and Drop Off Plastic Waste to Earn Shopping Perks with P&G  and Watsons 

Through P&G’s support, consumers who will turn in their used plastic products  and other waste until December 20 will be given 10% discount incentives (redeemable via QR code points) on selected Safeguard and Oral B products  when they buy in any Watsons branch.  

Consumers can donate their plastic waste daily from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Blue  PWC container vans are located in the following malls to date – SM Megamall,  SM Mall of Asia, SM City North EDSA, SM City Fairview, SM City Marikina, SM  City East Ortigas, SM Marilao, and SM Southmall.  

The PWC program accepts all kinds of plastic wastes excluding PVC pipes and  material. Examples are plastic sando bags, PET and HDPE bottles, Styrofoam,  disposable containers, utensils and straw, sachets, snack packs, shampoo,  conditioner and detergent containers, bubble wrap, e-commerce pouches and  small tires. The plastics must be empty, clean and dry. 

PCX will then weigh and haul the plastics and bring them to valorizing affiliates  which co-process them as coal alternative for cement manufacturing, into paver  blocks or planks and soon recycled PET bottles. 

P&G’s Ambition 2030 as a business priority

For P&G’s part, the company has already made innovative changes in  reducing, recycling, and recovering waste to make their commitments into  reality. By the end of the decade, the company is eyeing to eliminate the use of  virgin plastic by 50 percent and make product packaging 100% recyclable and  reusable. 

Specific to its products, Safeguard multipacks now use 100% recycled paper  cartons from previous virgin plastic overwrap packaging. This reduces 8,500  km of potential plastic waste, or a thousand times the length of the Boracay  coastline. Additionally, Herbal Essences shampoo bottles are now made of  25% post-consumer resins which are upcycled plastic waste. Furthermore,  P&G has partnered with World Vision’s Pag-asa Sa Basura initiative that  enabled the upcycling of recovered sachets into 2,000 classroom chairs that  were donated to partner elementary schools.  

More than waste management, P&G also supports water conservation. In their  Cabuyao plant, water consumption is tracked, and wastewater is recycled.  When it comes to climate, the company’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2030 is  already underway. Its local Cabuyao manufacturing plant, for example, has  already reduced 80% of its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by shifting to  100% renewable electricity. P&G has also recently announced a new global  ambition to achieve net zero GHG emissions across its operations and supply  chain, from raw material to retailer, by 2040. 

For more detailed information about P&G’s commitments and progress, please  see https://us.pg.com/environmental-sustainability/, P&G’s Climate Transition  Action Plan [LINK] and blog [LINK].