Fisk Johnson has been diving for more than 50 years. His favorite time to go under the waves is at sunset, when the light fades, the colors of the reef shift and the species that hide during the day start to emerge.
It’s also when the chairman and CEO of SC Johnson notices what doesn’t belong: a piece of plastic caught on coral or fragments drifting past him in the current.
“You’re witnessing something incredibly beautiful, and at the same time something deeply out of place,” Johnson said during his keynote at RCon 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri.
What he has seen on dives hasn’t stayed anecdotal. Johnson, who holds a doctorate in physics, has tested water for microplastics in the Galápagos, Iceland and the Strait of Magellan, among other ecosystems. In some of the most remote, pristine places he sampled, Johnson said he found hundreds of plastic particles per cubic meter of water.
“I think that should scare anyone,” he said.
Johnson also pointed to research on plastic in the human body. He said the average human brain contains about 7 grams of microplastics, citing work from the University of New Mexico.
That study, published in Nature Medicine, found brain tissue held roughly 10 times more microplastics than liver and kidney tissue, at a concentration about equal to a plastic spoon. SC Johnson produced a short film on the research featuring UNM professor Matthew Campen.
Three decades of trying
The household products company, which makes Windex, Raid and Ziploc, began working on plastic waste more than 30 years ago. In 1990, it introduced a bottle made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic. Johnson said he isn’t satisfied with where the company stands today.
About 30% of SC Johnson’s global packaging is made from recycled material, Johnson said, a top-tier result for the industry.
The company’s July 2026 Better World Accountability Report puts post-consumer recycled content at 25% across its packaging and virgin plastic use down 33% from 2018. Johnson said the company is aiming for 60% recycled content by 2030. Its published 2030 target is 55%. In many parts of the world, recycled plastic costs more than virgin resin, and supply can be limited.
“Progress remains an uphill battle,” he said.
Recyclability is a similar story. The July report puts the share of SC Johnson’s plastic packaging that is reusable or recyclable at 64%. Some of the design changes needed to go further add cost, reduce performance or cut convenience, which can hurt the company’s competitiveness, Johnson said.
Refill and concentrate systems, which SC Johnson began introducing more than 15 years ago, have seen some success in European stores and with certain premium US products. Most have struggled to scale because cost and convenience tend to outweigh consumer concern about plastic waste.
“When economics and performance favor the less circular alternative, even the most committed companies can only push so far on their own,” Johnson said.
Why policy
That’s why the company has turned to policy. It’s a position Johnson has taken before. In an earlier release on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment progress report, he said voluntary steps weren’t enough.
“To meet our shared goals we need government regulation,” Johnson said.
The principle behind extended producer responsibility (EPR) is what he likes most about it: a producer’s responsibility extends past the consumer to the systems that collect, sort and recover materials.
“We know EPR works,” he said.
In the US and many other countries without strong policy, recycling rates remain far too low, Johnson said. SC Johnson and a growing number of other companies have lobbied for federal regulation, including testifying before congressional subcommittees.
Johnson said he has been to Washington, DC more times than he can count. Some lawmakers want to go further than is practical, he said, and others end the conversation at the word “regulation.” On a good day, he leaves thinking the issue moved forward a millimeter.
“Those millimeters matter,” Johnson said. “If enough of us keep pushing, those millimeters eventually add up to meaningful change.”
Globally, SC Johnson is part of a coalition of more than 200 businesses advocating for a strong international treaty to end plastic pollution. Johnson acknowledged negotiations have dragged on for four years with no end in sight, given the difficulty of getting roughly 175 countries with different economies and priorities to agree.
“Plastic pollution doesn’t respect national borders,” he said. “Neither do our oceans.”
Building public support
Legislators act when they know constituents care, Johnson said, so the company has invested in public engagement.
Those efforts include “The Blue Paradox,” a permanent exhibit at Chicago’s Griffin Museum of Science and Industry that more than 1 million people have visited. The exhibit opened July 1, 2023. The company has also produced short films on how plastic waste affects communities, which are screening at film festivals.
Another campaign features Zuzu, an animated hermit crab that uses a discarded plastic bottle as its shell. SC Johnson launched the campaign in March 2025 with Conservation International and EarthEcho International. The first installment highlights SC Johnson’s program in Southeast Asia, where it pays a premium for plastic collected along rivers and coastlines and puts that material back into its products.
Johnson called the company “one very small voice” among the many needed. Producers, collectors, recyclers, policymakers and consumers all have a role, he said.
He closed with a photo of his father, taken 22 years ago as he marched against a proposed coal-fired power plant near the company’s Wisconsin headquarters. His father was dying at the time.
“You do what you believe is right, no matter what,” Johnson said, “even when it’s difficult and even when progress is slow.”
