Every year when Earth Day rolls around, companies of all sorts announce commitments to lead a more sustainable and environmentally friendly business. This year we saw so many groundbreaking ideas proposed by brands to keep our planet clean and healthy.
Perhaps one of the most popular announcements, Taco Bell has launched an initiative to save the planet by recycling their famous sauce packets. The company said that over eight billion packets of sauce are distributed every year just in the United States. With these huge numbers in mind it’s exciting to look towards 2024, when the company hopes all of their packets will be fully compostable and reusable. The program is currently in testing phases with a company called TerraCycle.
Another exciting Earth Day announcement came from Disney, who announced the end of plastic box packaging for their ever iconic princess dolls. The new boxes that case the dolls are 100% recyclable and the paper for the boxes is all sustainably and ethically sourced. The doll collection features 15 princesses and can be found all throughout Disney Parks and Disney retail stores. The company posted a video here announcing the change.
According to Business Insider, L’Oréal Paris has made a pledge to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% by 2030. The company has announced that their new shampoo and conditioner bottles will be composed of aluminum. Once a customer has finished a bottle they will be able to return them to a retailer so that L’Oréal can properly clean and reuse them. Due to the increase in popularity of sustainable and reusable toiletries, this idea seems to be promising.
Nike has come out with a program called “Refurbished,” where a customer returns a pair of shoes they no longer want or wear, and Nike cleans them up and puts them back on the market for a value price. Three types of shoes will be accepted into the program: “like new (maybe worn for a day or two before being returned), gently worn (a little longer) and cosmetically flawed (think: something like a small snag that happened in manufacturing).” You can read the full plan here, and the list of currently participating stores here. Nike intends on expanding the program to many more stores as time goes on.
Target has also made pledges to better their footprint this Earth Day. The company has started to carry a line of storage essentials made by Matter that are all compostable and sustainable. Another new line of cleaning products by the brand Grove Collaborative features glass and aluminum products that are easily recyclable. Having these products readily available at such a big corporation is a great positive change towards leaving less of a carbon footprint on the Earth.