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ISSA Members Help Plastic Bank Hit Recycling Milestone

International social enterprise Plastic Bank has achieved a milestone of preventing more than one billion plastic bottles from contaminating the world’s oceans.

To reach the milestone, Plastic Bank teamed with more than 17,000 individual plastic collectors across Haiti, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, and Egypt. The collectors exchange the plastic for premiums on such things as groceries, health insurance, and school tuition.

Plastic Bank also teams with dozens of international organizations to support collection centers and infrastructure needed to create a closed-loop recycling ecosystem. These organizations include such ISSA members as SC Johnson, parent company of SC Johnson Professional; Henkel AG & Co KGaA, parent company of Dial Professional; and Procter & Gamble (P&G), parent company of Procter & Gamble Professional. According to SC Johnson, the company’s partnership with Plastic Bank is responsible for keeping 500 million plastic bottles out of ocean ecosystems.