SC Johnson’s Low-Waste Cleaning Options

June 27th, 2013 • BY

In a release dated February 28, SC Johnson, announced the expansion of its Mini line of concentrated cleaners, which now includes five of the company’s trusted brands: fantastik®, Pledge®, Scrubbing Bubbles®, Shout® and Windex®. The concentrates, available at www.scjgreenchoices.com, offer an easy way to make the green choice of refilling, which could save millions of pounds of plastic from ending up in landfills nationwide.

“We’ve been working to crack the code on what would make concentrated refills a more popular choice,” said Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson. “Now we’re adding improvements that reflect the feedback we’ve heard from Windex® Mini users and move us closer to an option that we hope will create greater demand for these products. The resource savings with refills are hard to deny, and that’s something we really want to communicate and encourage.”

 

Change Worth Making

American consumers buy 320 million cleaning products in trigger bottles each year, and millions of them end up in landfills. By comparison, concentrated refills use less packaging, decrease shipping impacts and reduce waste. In fact, if just 20 percent of those 320 million bottles were refilled rather than discarded, it could save seven million pounds of plastic, the weight of 1,170 minivans, in just one year.

 

More importantly, SC Johnson also has reason to believe that with the right products, consumers will consider the change. The company recently funded a study with GfK Roper, as part of the 20th Anniversary Green Gauge® survey, to examine green attitudes and behaviors. Among the results: 75 percent of American consumers say they feel good when they take steps to help the environment.

 

Small Change, Big Difference

Trigger bottles for almost all the concentrate brands – fantastik®, Pledge®, Shout® and Windex® – are already produced with 50 percent post-consumer-recycled content. The Scrubbing Bubbles® trigger bottle is made with 30 percent post-consumer-recycled-content. Choosing to refill has an even greater positive impact:

 

• Requires 79 percent less plastic than the standard bottles

• Avoids transporting 19 to 23 fl. oz. of water, depending on the formula

• The refill bottle can be recycled in most community recycling programs

But that’s just the beginning. If just 20 percent of the 320 million cleaning products sold in trigger bottles were refilled each year, it could avoid using 3.5 million pounds of virgin plastic and avoid transporting nearly 11.5 million gallons of water, which is about 17 Olympic-size swimming pools’ worth.

 

Continuing Leadership

This latest launch by SC Johnson reflects yet another step in the 126-year-old company’s commitment to sustainability. From proactively phasing out CFCs, PVC and phthalates; to cutting worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent since 2000; to its recent announcement that it will list product ingredients on labels, SC Johnson continues to lead with its products and operations.

 

Learn more about SC Johnson’s efforts in its 2011 Public Report at www.scjohnson.com/2011Report