Procter & Gamble’s owned laundry detergent brand Tide has partnered with international recycling firm TerraCycle to make its new Tide Eco-Box packaging 100% recyclable.
TerraCycle is a waste management company operating across 21 countries with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste.
The company partners with leading consumer product companies, retailers, cities, and facilities to recycle products and packages, that would otherwise end up being landfilled or incinerated.
The new Tide Eco-Box is designed to be environmentally friendly, where the new ultra-concentrated Tide formula is produced with 30% less water, and its package has 60% less plastic than the equivalent bottled size.
Furthermore, the boxed design prevents wasteful secondary packaging and occupies less space than the equivalent bottle design, which also requires fewer trucks to transport it to stores.
P&G brand manager Isaac Hellemn said: “TerraCycle is the logical next step for us, because we want to ensure that not only is the product designed for more eco-friendly shipping and usage, but that every element of it is 100% recyclable, and recyclable through a very seamless process.”
Tide Eco-Box Recycling Program involves the consumers to recycle all of the packaging from the Eco-Box for free. The Eco-Box once used is separated from any plastic waste from the cardboard box and mailed it in using a prepaid shipping label.
The plastic collected is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled products. Collectors could earn $1 to donate to a non-profit, school or charitable organization of their choice, for every pound of waste shipped to TerraCycle.
To recycle the corrugated cardboard box, participants are provided with interactive map at terracycle.com where people can enter address and search for available recycling options, including TerraCycle drop-off locations and municipal recycling programs.
TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky said: “Each year, more than 79 percent of waste that ends up in landfills has the potential to be recycled. TerraCycle, in association with companies like Tide, works every day to reduce that number and integrate single-use packaging into new products.”
Procter & Gamble’s TIDE brand have partnered with TerraCycle on the sustainability initiative Loop, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to offer brand products with reusable and refillable packaging.