Putting Plastic Waste To Use In Our Packaging - Venetia Falconer for The Body Shop

Plastic pollution is a problem. But if plastic is used correctly, it can be a sustainable material for people and the planet. We took sustainability activist, Venetia Falconer, to India to help us tell the story of our NEW Community Trade Recycled Plastic. The devastating effect of single-use plastic waste on our oceans is well known. Yet there is a human side to the plastic crisis which is rarely discussed. Over 3 billion people around the world live without access to organised waste collection. That’s almost half the planet’s population! This has created an informal waste picking economy, where waste pickers, many of whom are women, often live below the poverty line and work in appalling conditions to collect and sort waste that would otherwise end up in the world’s rivers and oceans. Furthermore, they are shunned by society. Through our NEW Community Trade partnership, we’re working with waste pickers in India to recycle plastic waste and support them with access to more sanitary working conditions and a fair price for the waste they collect. This means we’ll be taking the plastic that already exists in this world, and giving it back its value by putting it to use. From 2019, our recycled 250ml haircare bottles will contain 15% of Community Trade recycled plastic. Working in collaboration with small waste picker communities, we plan to increase this amount over time, starting small and scaling up in a responsible and sustainable manner. Find out more about how we will