ElastiGirl and Other Inspirations: Q&A with J&J's Paulette Frank
Prove Your Purpose recently sat down with Paulette Frank, Johnson & Johnson's* vice president of sustainability and Cone's partner for the 2014 Recycling in the Home Survey, to learn more about the company's sustainability commitments, what inspired Care to Recycle and what Paulette considers her greatest achievement.
Prove Your Purpose: Tell us about Johnson & Johnson's Care to Recycle program. What inspired its creation, and what are you hoping it will achieve?
Paulette Frank: For most people, recycling is a familiar and achievable environmental action – it's something they feel they can actually do to make a difference. In that sense, recycling is a gateway behavior – it opens the door to other environmental actions. So that's where we started – we wanted to help facilitate better, easier recycling because one, many of our products are recyclable, and two, we believe recycling begins a chain reaction of other responsible behaviors. And with that, Care to Recycle was born.
The ultimate goal of Care to Recycle is to increase recycling rates. We're focusing first on awareness – we know from the research we conducted with Cone that consumers need help understanding what can be recycled and how. That's why Care to Recycle is also a label we put on our readily recyclable packaging, like cartons, clear plastic bottles made of PET (#1 plastic) and other plastic bottles made of HDPE (#2 plastic).
Second, we're focusing on facilitating behavior change. At J&J, we touch a billion people every day – that's a billion opportunities to share a message, educate, inspire, learn and get better at what we do. The research confirmed our hunch that the farther people get from recycling bins, the less likely they are to recycle. We're currently working on removing that barrier by helping consumers put bins throughout their homes.
PYP: How does Care to Recycle fit in with J&J's larger sustainability initiatives?
To read more on Cone's Prove Your Purpose blog, please click here.
