The COVID-19 pandemic ushered the growth of e-commerce in the Philippines. While this robust growth is good for the economy, it saw the rise of another problem: an increase in plastic waste due to delivery packages.

Companies such as Procter & Gamble (P&G) Philippines, whose portfolio has been trusted over the years for its premium health care, home care, beauty, and grooming products, creates a more sustainable world with its efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste in its business ecosystem.

The company’s sustainability initiative “Project LESS” introduces waste reduction solutions for in-store and online retailing.

Here are three ways P&G is enabling more responsible consumption:

1. Many of P&G’s products are reducing or replacing packaging. P&G bottles of Herbal Essences’ bio:renew shampoo are made with 25% post-consumer resin (recycled plastic). P&G also eliminated plastic overwrap on Safeguard soap multipacks, replacing them with recycled paper cartons. This reduced 8,500 km of potential plastic waste or one thousand times the length of the Boracay coastline.

P&G Philippines also customized its product bundles packaging by converting laminate-based bellybands and stickers to 100% FSC-certified papers, resulting in reduced bundling material usage and a 380,000 kg reduction in plastic waste.

2. P&G created ready-to-ship bundle containers. Olay produced a “Ship-In-Own-Container” packaging for online purchases. This eliminates the need for additional customization and last-mile packaging materials such as bubble wrap, fillers, and tape.

3. P&G partnered with an eCommerce company to recycle and reuse its cartons for last-mile packaging. Sellers usually protect their products during delivery with excessive amounts of plastic wrap. To address this, P&G launched a regional sustainability partnership with an eCommerce company to recycle and reuse cartons from their Cabuyao plant for last-mile packaging in e-commerce deliveries. Cartons are converted into a honeycomb-like protective wrap which also provides quality delivery insulation, resulting in avoidance and reduction of plastic bubble wrap usage which could have potentially ended up as waste. As of August, P&G has supplied its eCommerce partner with over 4,000 kilograms of cartons for recycling and reuse.

P&G is committed to creating better and sustainable alternatives that are good for the environment, consumers, and business. Recently, P&G Philippines was recognized at the 2022 Asia CEO Awards with the Sustainability Company of The Year Circle of Excellence Award. The award recognizes those that achieved important success in environmental progress and demonstrated leadership and commitment to sustainability.