In honor of World Oceans Day, Burt’s Bees is teaming up with rePurpose, the world’s leading plastic action platform that is dedicated to reducing waste and restoring nature’s balance. The companies are creating a joint Ocean Plastic Prevention Initiative to recycle plastic and prevent all plastics from heading into oceans.
The Ocean Plastic Prevention Initiative is a three-year partnership to finance recycling in Accra, Ghana, and the Malappuram district of Kerala, India. This initiative will eliminate 1.5 million pounds of waste that was bound for the ocean as well as improve the conditions of waste workers, many of who are women in these regions, WWD reported.
The companies have already co-developed a model that improves recycling facilities as well as door-to-door household recycling collections that will impact around 2,000 households in Kerala, India. There, plastic film creates the most waste. These new collection initiatives will redesign how plastic film is collected and recycled.
In Accra, plastic bottles are in greater need of being broken down properly. The initiative will provide resources that allow facilities to repurpose polyethylene terephthalate (the recyclable plastic used in the production of soda and water bottles). Investing in this will reduce plastic in the rivers and waterways of the region.
Burt’s Bees has always worked hard to preserve nature. The tried and true beauty brand has been carbon neutral certified, according to its website. Burt’s Bees also supports honeybee health (as their products are created with natural beeswax) and biodiversity by giving back $3.5 million in grants. Deriving all of its products from natural resources, Burt’s Bees designs its packaging to be recycled or composted, in an effort to avoid going to a landfill.
This initiative helps Burt’s Bees achieve its net-zero plastic to nature by 2025. The goal of the brand is to be 100% recyclable, reusable, or made to be composted by 2030.
