SC Johnson Launches Recycling, Sustainability Programs

SC Johnson is launching two programs to help consumers make choices for recycling and sustainability.

The Racine, Wis.-based consumer products company is partnering with New York-based Recyclebank to establish theSC Johnson Green Choices Recycling Challenge, an initiative designed to motivate communities to reduce waste.

The second program is the SC Johnson Sustainable Behavior Change Program, a research project that will examine how to prompt behavior change involving sustainable choices, the company said in a news release.

The recycling challenge aims to increase consumer recycling and help the company reach its goal of being landfill neutral by 2016. That would come from eliminating or diverting 480 million pounds of waste from landfills, which is more than the company’s U.S. waste footprint, it said. SC Johnson aims to reach that goal by cutting its own waste through reduced product packaging, operational changes, and through consumer involvement.

The recycling challenge will focus on increasing curbside recycling in 50 communities across the United States. The effort involves promoting local recycling activity and offering incentives to participants.

The behavioral change study will bring together academics, environmentalists and consumers to identify what drives behavior change focusing on a variety of sustainable actions. The program will test different message techniques, including the recycling challenge, across communities to understand what drives behavior changes, especially concerning recycling, and how create incentives to make it happen.

"We have to figure out how to make sustainable choices easier and more desirable for families. Companies need to offer responsible products and operate sustainably. But importantly, consumers also need to demand, and then choose, green options," says Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of SC Johnson.