SC Johnson, Recyclebank team up for recycling study

SC Johnson, Recyclebank team up for recycling study

By Henry Leineweber, Resource Recycling

SC Johnson has launched a broad new sustainability study and competition which the company hopes will allow it to become landfill-neutral by 2016.

Through a partnership with incentive-based recycling program Recyclebank, as well as researchers from Arizona State University and the University of Minnesota, SC Johnson aims to increase curbside collection rates at 50 communities across the U.S. The Sustainable Behavior Change Program [1] will employ different tactics and incentives over the course of the study to improve collection, then analyze which ones are the most effective. The company hopes that, in addition to the data gained through the competition, the effort will eliminate or divert the 480 million pounds of waste which would enable SC Johnson to become landfill-neutral.

The competition is in addition to the company's other waste reduction and recycling efforts, which include increasing the use of post-consumer recycled content in its packaging to 30 percent by 2016 and offsetting an additional 30 percent of virgin material use through supplier partnerships and packaging advances. More detailed information on SC Johnson's waste reduction and material reduction progress, as well as its near-term sustainability goals, can be found in the company's 2011 Sustainability Report [2].

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