Huh? Jeff really must be working too hard… right? Well, I probably am, but the question is legitimate, according to Southern forest sustainability organization the Dogwood Alliance. While many of us greenies are focused on the environmental impact of roses, chocolate and even adult products on Valentine’s Day, Dogwood raised questions about the amount of packaging used for health and beauty products. According to their blog,
Proctor & Gamble, Unilever and Revlon are three of the biggest health and beauty companies using excessive packaging originating from Southern forests—forests with more types of plants and animals to love than almost anywhere in the world. Excessive packaging of beauty products is just plain ugly, and destructive too.
Dogwood Alliance called on Proctor & Gamble, Unilever and Revlon to reduce the amount of paper in packaging, increase post-consumer recycled fiber used in packaging, and ensure that their paper products are not coming from endangered forests.
The message is simple – forests shouldn’t be chopped down, chipped up, made into packaging and tossed in the landfill. There are simple solutions that can transform the packaging industry.
Of course, it’s not just activists asking for less packaging on products; retail giant Wal-Mart focused on packaging for some of its earliest sustainability initiatives. This seems like a hard one to argue against — do you think any company would try a variation on the standard line and say consumers demand more packaging?
If you’re interested in joining the Dogwood Alliance’s campaign, they’ve created an action page where you can express your thoughts to the beauty products makers listed above. Give ’em hell… in a Valentine’s Day kind of way, of course…;-)
Categories: activism, beauty, products, packaging, paper, waste, forests, dogwoodalliance