Plastic Bank.
Racine, Wisconsin-based SC Johnson will open a ninth recycling center in Indonesia if social media users help raise the dialogue on recycling and “social plastic,” a bank-verified plastic that provides a premium, or plastic bank rewards, to local collectors.
SC Johnson, a global manufacturer of household cleaning products, and Plastic Bank, a platform that aims to prevent the flow of plastics into the ocean through the sale and use of social plastic, have opened eight recycling centers in Indonesia in the past year to help increase recycling rates across Indonesia, while addressing poverty. The company says the recycling centers have been designed to increase infrastructure in the country.
SC Johnson vows to open a ninth recycling center if people tweet with the #SocialPlastic or #SCJRecycles tag this week.
“Plastic pollution has become a critical issue around the globe, especially where recycling infrastructure is not in place. We believe the more people are talking about this issue, the more government, businesses, NGOs and communities will work together to address it,” explains Kelly Semrau, senior vice president of global corporate affairs, communication and sustainability at SC Johnson. “Social media can be a great motivator.”
According to Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, five Asian countries – China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand – account for more than 55 percent of the plastic waste leaking into the ocean. Raising collection rates to an average 80 percent across those countries would reduce plastic scrap leakage into the ocean by 23 percent. Indonesia, which has been home to SC Johnson for decades, has pledged up to $1 billion per year to reduce the amount of plastic in its waters.
The first recycling center opened in Bali in October, with all centers planned to be operational by May 2019. The centers will have a minimum capacity of 100 metric tons of plastic per year. Local waste collectors can bring the plastic they collect to any center, where they can exchange it for digital tokens. Using Blockchain technology, they can use the tokens to buy goods and services, according to SC Johnson.
Plastic collected through the program is sorted, processed and sold under the name Social Plastic to brands to use in their manufacturing of products, such as SC Johnson’s first 100 percent recycled ocean plastic Windex bottle.
The company challenges Twitter users to share their support for reducing ocean plastic by tagging #SocialPlastic or #SCJRecycles this week. If the company counts at least 20,000 tweets or retweets with those tags by the end of the week, it will open an additional recycling center in Indonesia.
“I want to continue the momentum that’s building out there around awareness of this issue, because that’s going to help us solve it,” SC Johnson Chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson says. “With the attention this issue has gotten around the world, we’re at a tipping point. Business has an opportunity to embrace this change and continue to drive attention to this issue.”