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Posts with term Tom-Blog X

The Waste Biz: Consumers Need Help Recycling Plastic

Tom Szaky, the founder of Terracycle, addresses this issue in a Packaging Digest article. The current system wasn’t designed for consumers, but for recyclers. And, unlike people in the business, the average person doesn’t understand – or care about – the type of resin in a product, or whether a hybrid package has some materials that can be recycled, and some that can’t. S/he just wants to know if they can toss _____ in the blue bin. Szaky points to the How2Recycle label as a consumer focused alternative: created by GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition, this label focuses on consumer needs… and, if implemented, could help raise plastic recycling rates.  

Consumers are confused about recycling, and here’s why

          Most consumers will not go out of their way to determine if they can recycle product packaging, so the only other viable solutions from a consumer’s point of view are to: (A) stop buying the product altogether to prevent further waste generation; (B) throw it away with no attempt at recycling; or (C) find an alternative recycling program for the post-consumer waste, such as the new Zero Waste Boxes offered by TerraCycle, allowing anyone to recycle any non-hazardous solid packaging and other waste.

When environmentalism and entrepreneurialism Intersect: My takeaways from the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting

    This is a primary component of the circular economy and Cradle-to-Cradle production, topics widely discussed throughout the conference halls and auditoriums of the Annual Meeting. This was even the first year of the WEF’s Circular Economy Awards, during which TerraCycle received “Highly Commended” recognition. Needless to say, the circular economy is starting to receive the attention it deserves.

How Companies Are Developing Brand Loyalty With Conscious Consumers

Packaging professionals are always on the hunt for the next big way to appeal to consumers. When it comes to buying products, the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” simply doesn’t apply. Packaging is the first thing a consumer sees, and its design can play a huge part in a purchasing decision. This doesn’t mean, however, that looks are all that matter; environmentally-savvy customers are as equally concerned about the fate of the packaging as they are in its aesthetics. More and more consumers are interested in buying from brands that highlight their commitment to environmental issues. According to Bridgestone Americas and Firestone Complete Auto Care’s 2013 survey, of the over 4,000 Americans surveyed, 86 percent recycled and a whopping 92 percent said that they consider a company’s environmental sustainability when purchasing products. The question isn’t whether recycling is good for business; the question is how to engage consumers. A number of companies have begun coming up with inventive ways to bring their recycling message to their consumer base, giving incentives to consumers who recycle their packaging. Evergreen Packaging recently wrapped up their Made by Milk carton construction contest, donating up to $5,000 to a school in New York in order to fund art classes that focus on the use of recyclable materials. The winning school created an Alice in Wonderland sculpture by using milk cartons, plastic bags, and soda bottles, among other recyclable materials. Manna Pro, a company that focuses on animal feed, came up with a list of 10 ways to recycle or upcycle Feed Packaging, available for download on their website. In the past they also ran a Manna Planet Packaging Recycling Contest, inviting participants to send in their ideas for the best ways to recycle or upcycle their feed bags. Internationally, FedEx Korea held a Packaging Material Recycling Idea Contest to celebrate the release of its Extra Large Pack, asking participants how they could use recycled packaging materials in their everyday lives. Not only did the contest offer a number of different prizes, but it gave FedEx the opportunity to boast that its new XL packages were made of recyclable polyethylene, containing a minimum of 15 percent post-industrial recycled content. Packaging recycling contests are incredibly versatile and can appeal to a hugely diverse audience because they can be tailored to nearly any consumer base. For instance, Huggies recently partnered with TerraCycle to start diaper packaging recycling contest. The “Diapers for Recyclers” contest offers participants the chance to win ten cases of Huggies diapers every month through December in exchange for their diaper and wipe packaging. Participants get one sweepstakes entry for shipments of packaging weighing at least six pounds, and five entries for shipments weighing at least eight pounds. Each month three winners are chosen to receive the diapers, so there is a strong incentive for consumers to collect and recycle. Contests like these are great opportunities for brands to connect with socially-conscious consumers. They show that these brands are taking responsibility for their packaging waste, and are taking steps to negate the impact that their packaging may have on the environment. Consumers respond to this not only by recycling their products, but by developing brand loyalty to the companies that strive to make the world a greener place to live. In the end, everyone, including the earth, wins.

Marketing to the Conscious Consumer

At TerraCycle, we are often approached by brands vying for the attention of the conscious consumer. In all of this rush, few brands have taken the time to really characterize this new target. Who exactly is the conscious consumer anyway? Conscious consumers can be difficult to classify, as they can’t simply be identified by ethnicity, age, gender, or socioeconomic status. The conscious consumer is not as focused on price. Instead, they are focused on how their everyday purchases affect the larger political and environmental landscape. They are label-readers and fact-checkers; they are the brand-ambassadors and brand-trashers; they are the bloggers and the “sharers” on social media. Aligning brand marketing to capture this consumer segment requires a meticulously crafted strategy that includes a plan for authentic action. When sitting down with partners who are approaching this consumer for the first time, I advise them to think about their PR and marketing campaigns only after nailing down the actual plan of action. That is, what has the brand done, or what is the brand trying to do, to make the world a better place? In other words, organizations boasting environmental or social stewardship are best served when following bold claims with equally bold actions. The oil giant BP is a case-in-point example of what not to do. Back in 2000, the company launched a $200 million campaign to seemingly reinvent themselves as a clean, green brand that considered alternatives “Beyond Petroleum.” This entire campaign, which seemed absurd from the start, came on the coattails of a $45 million acquisition of Solarex, a solar energy company. You read that right: BP spent $200 million to tell the world of their $45 million “green” investment. Conscious consumers were enraged, and they took to blogging and trashing BP’s questionable campaign from day one. The conscious community boycotted BP long before the Gulf of Mexico fiasco, which only added another 150 million gallons of fuel to their fire. This disaster, combined with conscious consumer disgust, even led to BP’s removal from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Had BP followed their campaign with an aggressive strategy to make renewable energy a quantifiable percentage of their overall portfolio, they could have transformed the conscious consumer from a squeaky wheel to a loyal customer. At the end of the day, even a Prius needs to fill up its tank. There is a growing niche of new businesses that have built their organizations with larger social or environmental missions in mind. Brands such as Clif Bar and Tom’s of Maine are prime examples of conscious consumer brands. Each organization was built, from inception, on pillars of social and environmental stewardship. Staying true to this mission has allowed them to grow from boutique brands to national leaders in their category. Founded in 1904, Garnier has a long history of making lines of personal care and beauty products made using all-natural ingredients. However, it wasn’t until the last 10 years that Garnier revamped its marketing platform to communicate to consumers those natural ingredient products and the brand's larger mission of environmental stewardship. Immediately upon launching their Pure Clean product line intended “For a Cleaner, Greener World,” conscious consumers put Garnier under the microscope. These conscious investigators found biodegradable ingredients, more eco-friendly packaging, and the absence of harsh chemicals still common in similar products. After building their marketing platform on the success of their low-impact product lines, they followed with even more real action. Not only did Garnier sponsor a recycling program for their hard-to-recycle product category (cosmetics), but they also turned that waste into the building blocks for a community garden. The key to Garnier’s success was incorporating authentic action, followed by marketing, followed by even more authentic action. When comparing BP to Garnier, BP made no real change in product or mission, but still dove into aggressive conscious consumer marketing. Garnier on the other hand created an entirely new product line just for the conscious community and communicated quantifiable changes to their business platform, both in the formula and in their recycling initiatives. When comparing Clif Bar and Tom’s of Maine to Garnier, we see entirely different business structures that ultimately converge on the idea that the only real way to gain value in the conscious community is through genuine action. Doing good, does good.