P&G Archives - The CSR Journal

CSR: P&G Invented New Technology for Recycling

Hency Thacker — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 08:59:35 +0000

Plastic bottles are among the biggest cause of pollution in the oceans. The plastic bottles, commonly known as PETs, have caused a lot of distress to the blue economy. While the organisations are now taking up the responsibility to recycle these bottles, the caps of the bottles are often left untreated.

Plastic bottle caps are typically made from a different material than the rest of the bottle. Plastic beverage bottles, for example, are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), while the caps are made from polypropylene (PP or Plastic No. 5).

When Polypropylene, a rigid plastic, is processed, the resulting material is opaque and dark in colour. Typically, the only end use for this material is to down-cycle it into products like park benches or flower pots, significantly lowering its value in the recycling market.

Last year, a Procter & Gamble scientist figured out a solution to change that. John Layman, section head of corporate research and development for P&G, and his team figured out a way to remove all colours and contaminants from recycled polypropylene, essentially returning it to its virgin state.

The discovery was born out of a meeting with the North American Association of Plastic Recyclers, which convened manufacturers to discuss which types of recycled plastic they’re looking to buy—and which types they have trouble sourcing. The team learned from the meeting that recycled polypropylene was in high demand and if they managed to get to a virgin quality, then there would be many manufacturers who would place big orders at a very good price.

P&G became the first brand to join the World Wildlife Fund’s ReSource: Plastic collaborative. ReSource is similar to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in that it seeks to translate disparate goal-setting into a common language—in this case, around preventing plastic waste.

The company has set a number of bold goals around plastic under its Ambition 2030 plan—from halving its use of virgin plastic by 2030 to ensuring no P&G plastic finds its way to the ocean.

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The CSR Journal Team

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Whisper pledges to educate 5 crore adolescent girls about menstrual hygiene in India by 2022

The CSR Journal — Tue, 28 May 2019 10:06:44 +0000

Whisper today pledged to reach out and extend the impact of its flagship ‘Mother Daughter Menstrual Health & Hygiene Program’ to 5 Crore girls by the end of 2022.

As part of its commitment to increase menstrual hygiene in the country, Whisper will reach out to more than 40,000 schools across India. The pledge was made by Whisper at the ‘Need to Break Silence and Build Awareness’ event organized by ASSOCHAM to mark the occasion of ‘World Menstrual Hygiene Day’. Till last year, Whisper’s Mother Daughter Menstrual Health & Hygiene Program has already educated more than 2.5 crore girls about menstrual hygiene, since its inception in 1995.

Vandana Gurnani, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare was the Chief Guest at the event, which was also attended by Padma Shri awardee, classical dancer and activist, Geeta Chandran and Foroogh Foyouzat from UNICEF India among other senior representatives from the government, industry and social organizations working towards menstrual hygiene education.

Suman and Sneha, whose true story about a quiet revolution against the stigma of menstruation was featured in the Oscar winning documentary, ‘Period: End of Sentence’, were also present at the event as special guests.

Chetna Soni, Associate Director & Country Leader, Feminine Care, P&G said, “As an industry, our focus should be to increase awareness and adoption of good quality and safe menstrual hygiene. Our pledge to extend the reach of our Menstrual Health & Hygiene Program to educate over 5 crore adolescent girls about menstrual hygiene by 2022 is in line with this vision. We invite relevant stakeholders across the board – government, social institutions and corporates – to come together and partner with us on this initiative.”

Chetna also highlighted the importance of tackling period taboos head-on. “Till date, we continue to fight taboos and societal restrictions relating to periods, that girls face and lend our voice to empower them to be unstoppable, even during their periods. The conversations that we witness on periods, that appear so obvious today, were a huge challenge not so long ago. A monumental change has taken shape, starting with Whisper’s Cannes Glass Lion Winning campaign – Whisper ‘Touch the Pickle’ in 2014, where we first encouraged & enabled women to talk about and confront period taboos in society.”

Whisper began the journey to normalize menstruation about 3 decades back; it was the first brand to show a sanitary pad, and the first to mention the word ‘periods’ in advertising. At that time, when the brand wanted to advertise on prime time, TV channels thought it was an inappropriate product to advertise. Whisper then got special permission, in order to be the first sanitary pad brand to advertise on prime time Indian Television.

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P&G Aims to Deliver 25 Billion Liters of Clean Drinking Water to Families in Need

The CSR Journal — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 13:37:14 +0000

Procter & Gamble (P&G) is celebrating the achievement of its 2020 goal of delivering 15 billion litres of clean drinking water through its non-profit Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Program. The organisation is now accelerating its efforts to help provide clean drinking water to even more people by delivering 25 billion litres – more than 100 billion glasses of water – worldwide by 2025.

Since the program launched in 2004, P&G has worked closely with a network of more than 150 partners to raise awareness of the global water crisis and provide water to families in more than 90 countries through a simple purification process invented by a P&G laundry scientist. With just one packet, a bucket, a stick and a clean cloth, 10 litres of dirty, potentially deadly, water can be turned into clean, drinkable water in only 30 minutes.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 844 million people globally do not have access to clean drinking water. UNICEF estimates that women and children spend 40 billion hours each year collecting and managing water that is often contaminated. The United Nations has prioritized the need to address this through UN Sustainable Development Goal #6 which aims to ensure clean water and proper sanitation for all by 2030.

To date, P&G’s efforts to provide access to clean water are transforming communities by improving health, enabling education and increasing economic opportunities.

“We are proud to have reached this 15 billion litre milestone and inspired by the opportunity to make an even greater impact through our new goal,” said David Taylor, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of P&G. “This life-changing technology has helped many families over the past 15 years, and we’re eager to help even more in the years to come.”

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