Rinse, Recycle, Reimagine for a Bright Future

We celebrated Earth Day last week, but really, we should be celebrating Earth Day Every Day.  We can't afford to think about saving the earth just one day a year -- it should be a conscious daily effort, and we should be teaching our kids to build good habits that lessen our impact on the earth.  Even small things can make a big difference.

For instance, did you know that 600 million bathroom products could end up in landfills each year? Most plastic bottles that we use for our bath and beauty product can be recycled, but just 34% of Americans actually recycle them!

Think of all the landfill space that we could be freeing up, just by taking our used shampoo bottles, soap dispensers, and facial cream tubs downstairs to the recycling bin instead of tossing them in the trash!  It's a shame, because recycled plastic can be turned into so many things -- bags, hairbrushes,dinnerware, carpeting, countertops, even flooring for playgrounds and running tracks!

Unilever – the maker of products including Dove®, Suave®, St. Ives®, Caress® and more – did a bit of research about bathroom recycling habits, and here's what they found:

• Beware the product hoarders: 1 in 5 Americans (20%) have more than 10 bathroom products in plastic bottles in their bathroom at a given time.
  
• What gets Americans moving: Americans are more likely to go the distance to get a drink when thirsty, charge their phone, or answer a phone call than walk an empty plastic bottle from the bathroom to the recycle bin.
  
• Battle of the sexes: More men (80%) reported recycling their empty bathroom bottles than women (74%). 

Unilever can’t do this alone, and so the company has introduced the Unilever BrightFuture initiative. What began as Project Sunlight in 2013 has evolved into a larger movement designed to bring Unilever’s purpose to life and inspire Americans to take small actions that add up to a big difference – whether that’s wasting less, sharing more, turning off the tap, turning on community activism or, simply, recycling – because everyone has a role to play in creating a brighter future.

How you can help:

• Make an effort to recycle your used bath and beauty bottles.  Put a small recycling bin in your bathrooms, or take your used bath and beauty bottles downstairs to your household recycling bin.
  
• Spread the word!Share a photo of your bathroom empties being recycled on Twitter and Instagram using #ReimagineThat. You can even add #Sweeps and tag @UnileverUSA to your post to be entered for a chance to win recycled, reimagined prizes.
  
• Watch famous Internet Illusionist Zach King and others reimagine recycling and share their videos across your social channels.
  
• Visit BrightFuture.Unilever.us to learn how you can help bridge the gap in bathroom recycling.

Here are a couple of images I created using my own bath product empties... now let's see yours!

More information about the Sweepstakes:
http://unileversweepsrules.com/reimagine/
· Timing: April 29 – June 9
· Daily prizes (42 in total) and a grand prize (1 for a $500 gift card)
· Users must include #ReimagineThat and #Sweeps and tag @UnileverUSA in order to qualify


Disclosure: This is a compensated post.  The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
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