London Drugs is the first major retailer in Canada to introduce recycling collection boxes for all beauty packaging and chocolate wrappers.
London Drugs, a leading general retailer in Western Canada, is now offering consumers a chance to recycle their used beauty packaging and chocolate wrappers at all 75 of their stores. The recycling program is in partnership with leading recycler and upcycler TerraCycle, and current TerraCycle program partners, Garnier and Nestlé.
The program, which launches August 2012, encourages consumers to drop off their used beauty packaging and chocolate wrappers at collection boxes in London Drugs stores throughout British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. For every piece of used packaging received, $0.02 will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society. TerraCycle will recycle the waste into items like park benches, waste bins and more.
“We are delighted to partner with London Drugs on this in-store recycling initiative,” says TerraCycle Canada General Manager Nina Purewal. “All the parties involved are committed to sustainability. London Drugs has demonstrated the value of recycling in-store for quite some time, so we think they’re the ideal collection location for two of our most-popular waste-collection programs.”
Based in Richmond, B.C., London Drugs has received awards from the Retail Council of Canada and more for its innovative recycling programs. The company has found new ways for customers to recycle a variety of purchased items including smoke alarms, non-rechargeable batteries, small appliances, VHS tapes and more. As well, hard-to-recycle packaging like Styrofoam is recycled through its “Bring Back the Pack” program. The company has diverted more than 42,200,000 pounds of waste to date. Its goal is to reach 95 per cent waste diversion company-wide, by 2015. For a complete list of London Drugs’ recycling and waste diversion initiatives visit www.greendeal.ca.
“London Drugs is excited to partner with TerraCycle and become the first major retailer in Canada to offer our customers these new recycling streams,” says Clint Mahlman, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, London Drugs. “We believe our customers will respond enthusiastically when learning that they will now have the ability to discard and recycle all beauty packaging and chocolate wrappers in all of our stores. This is an important solution for our customers and London Drugs, as we move one step closer toward our company-wide waste diversion goal.”
“At Garnier, we are very proud to work with our partner, London Drugs, to give a second life to beauty products,” says Sheila Morin, Brand Director, Garnier.
“We are pleased to see this program extend in-store at London Drugs and believe that it will continue to drive awareness for the Chocolate Wrapper Brigade and build consumer participation in Western Canada,” says Helena Tigert, Confectionery Marketing Leader, Nestlé Canada.
TerraCycle’s national program helps keep hard-to-recycle materials out of the waste stream. Anyone can join and ship waste for free. Individuals, households, offices, community and religious organizations, schools and charities earn points that can be redeemed for charitable gifts or a donation to their school or charity of choice. TerraCycle Canada currently offers 19 Brigade® programs. Once participants have enough waste for a shipment, they log into their account and print a prepaid UPS shipping label to send in their box at no cost. To date, Canadians have diverted more than 5,700,000 units of waste from landfill and donated more than $100,000 to their schools or charities. For more information on how to sign up, send in trash and earn extra cash for a favourite charity or school, visit www.terracycle.ca.
