Johnson & Johnson Care to Recycle™: How The Smallest Room Can Make A Big Difference
But even the most avid recyclers can overlook things. In fact, we recently learned that there is one room in the house where many of us forget to recycle. It’s probably the smallest room in your house and it’s the room where most of our personal care products are used…the bathroom.
Members of the Sustainability team here at Johnson & Johnson were brainstorming ways to encourage home recycling, and we had an “aha” moment. We realized that most of the consumer products we sell are found or used in the bathroom, and we wondered if those products were getting recycled as much as products in other parts of the house.
When we did some research, we learned that most people in the US recycle products from the bathroom far less than they recycle products from other places like the kitchen and the laundry room. In fact, while 69% of Americans claim to always or almost always recycle, only 20% say they consistently recycle products from the bathroom.* The fact that the bathroom recycling percentage was so low was surprising, but when I thought about recycling in my own home, it made sense.
Bathrooms are usually tight on space, so it’s not likely that you have a recycling bin in your bathroom. Also, your main bathroom may be upstairs - away from your regular recycling bins. In our house we have the “walk it down” routine where we try our best to bring empty bottles and cartons down to the kitchen recycling area. But, if I’m honest, this “walk it down” technique isn’t always a gentle walk. A lot of times, it’s more like “throw it down” (…or, throw it down aggressively with shouts of laughter if my five year old son is involved). Then, as the pile increases at the foot of the stairs, “bystander recycling apathy” is eventually overcome when someone, usually my saintly wife, decides to finish the job and move the bathroom recyclables over to the main recycling bin in the kitchen!
