The international beauty brand ‘The Body Shop’ claims that by the end of 2019, over three million haircare bottles (250 ml) will be made with recycled plastic.
This will start with Shea shampoo and conditioner, and will be followed by the bestselling Ginger Shampoo.
In partnership with Bengaluru-based Plastics for Change that gives waste pickers access to global markets will also rope in local partners such as Hasiru Dala, an NGO that fights for waste picker rights.
For Community Trade Programme (CTP) alone, a whopping 50,000 kilos of plastic have been recycled. The plastic waste is collected and deposited at the segregation centre by verified waste pickers, and a record of the transaction is uploaded onto a mobile app.
At the wholesaler’s aggregation centre, the pickers segregate the plastics, which then go through quality checks.
The sorted plastic is then compressed into bales to be exported to Europe. This plastic is converted into granules that are sent to the bottle producer after further material testing.
For the Ginger Shampoo 64 metric tons (64,000 kgs) of PET plastic bottle waste has been exported to The Body Shop.
This initiative fortifies recycling businesses that pay waste pickers decent wages, train them in techniques that boost their incomes, and make investments that benefit entire communities.
Reference- The Hindu, The Body Shop website, The Independent