Culligan International’s Post

Last month, I called on Culligan employees to join me in taking the Plastic Free July pledge to avoid single-use plastic products for the entire month. Avoiding all single-use plastic products is difficult. Nevertheless, the people of Culligan embraced the challenge. Throughout July, we shared smart ways to avoid items such as plastic grocery bags, single-use water bottles, food containers, plastic cutlery, extraneous packaging material and garbage bags. Paying attention to your plastic use is a real eye-opener. And many on our team went beyond just avoiding plastic to collecting and recycling it through volunteer clean-up events. Being united as a force for good defines our Culligan team. Each piece of plastic our 17,000 global employees avoid or clean up makes a positive difference in our impact on our environment. #PlasticFreeJuly #PlasticSwaps #Culligan #ProtectThePlanet 

The Surfrider Foundation, on behalf of our Northern Ohio Chapter, has submitted a brief in litigation, supporting local municipalities' power to tackle plastic pollution. Specifically, Surfrider's brief supports the City of Athens, Ohio's constitutional right to regulate single-use plastic bags. The State of Ohio sued Athens last year after the City enacted an ordinance regulating the sale and distribution of single-use plastic bags, in an attempt to keep the community clean and litter free. “At chapter beach cleanups, we routinely find that the litter collected is primarily comprised of plastic, including single-use plastic items such as plastic bags, plastic beverage bottles, and plastic straws,” states Dr. Lara Roketenetz, chapter Volunteer Coordinator. “It doesn’t make sense to allow the flow of single-use plastic waste and litter to continue unabated, and it doesn’t make sense to prohibit a local government from enacting a law to address the problem at the source.” Learn more: https://hubs.la/Q02whdQm0 

In August 2023, Delaware became the 11th state to ban polystyrene foam containers in restaurants, joining California, Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Virginia, Maryland, Maine, New York, Vermont, and New Jersey. Delaware is also banning single-use plastic drink stirrers, cocktail picks, and sandwich picks. Plastic straws also may only be made available at a customer’s request. Restaurants in Delaware must implement these changes by July 2025.    “Polystyrene is one of the most littered materials across our state. Over time, this cheap material breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, which can be ingested by wildlife and passed into the food chain or water supply,” said Sen. Trey Paradee, prime sponsor of SB 51. “That’s why we must take action to reduce the amount of plastics that end up in our landfills, along our streets, and in our waterways.”  Certified Green Restaurant® Spotlight: 3 Star Certified Green Restaurant® Harvest Market Kitchen located in Hockessin, Delaware uses no polystyrene foam and only provides straws upon request. #dinegreen #sustainability #greenrestaurant #greenrestaurantassociation #gogreen #reducereuserecycle #restaurants #food #sustainableliving #donate #environment #motherearth #environmentallyfriendly #nature #pollution #eatlocal #plasticfree #certifiedgreenproduct #greenchemicals #certifiedgreenrestaurant #recycle #sustainable #climatechange #ecofriendly #zerowaste #nonprofit #sustainabilitytip

The Town of Breckenridge is working towards getting rid of #singleuseplastics! Yesterday, a new ordinance took effect that bans plastic water bottles, containers and serviceware. "The plastic water bottle ban includes all businesses in Breckenridge, and the single-use container and service ware ban applies to retail food establishments." Find out more about Breck's work on diversion and reducing plastic waste in the link below! #wastediversion

Switching to our bottle-free water coolers offers significant sustainability and cost-saving benefits compared to using 500ml single-use plastic water bottles or boiling tap water in a kettle. By choosing Culligan, you’re helping to reduce your workplace's environmental impact and energy costs. Visit https://lnkd.in/eejuU9-t and try our environmental impact calculator to see the positive change you could make today. *Based on the same volume of water consumed with Culligan products and with the most relevant comparator, such as 500 ml PET plastic water bottles, or water boiled in a kettle. **Based on the total weight of plastic used in 500 ml PET plastic water bottles, minus the total weight of plastic used in Culligan products and packaging. #Sustainability #EcoFriendly #GreenLiving #PlasticFree #GoGreen #EnvironmentalImpact #SaveThePlanet #CulliganAustralia

PET vs Aluminum, is this just green washing? A certain well know multinational was touting the trial of their new PET bottle without labels on it this week. The arguments for doing this were that by removing the label it makes it easier to recycle. OK - that maybe true but my main issuse with any sort of PET is that whatever you do with it microplastics will come off it and get into places you don't want it to be. This image kind of says it all (courtesy of open water). You can get into a debate about how the carbon footprint is much lower for plastic than any other drink container becuase it's lighter - that's great but we are never going to have a fully closed loop recycling system for it and you cannot eliminate the microplastics. It's probably only a matter of time before we see PET being banned for certain types of beverages - starting with bottled water. Does anyone disagree with this? #greenwashing #recycling #CPGmarketing

California generates over 500,000 tons of plastic waste annually, primarily from plastic foodware. To combat this issue, Senator Catherine Blakespear has introduced SB 1167, legislation co-sponsored by leading environmental organizations. This bill mandates that chain restaurants provide reusable cups for dine-in customers, aiming to reduce single-use plastic cups. Reusable foodware for dine-in is what all states should be doing at minimum. We hope to see wide-scale adoption of this policy to help reduce reliance on single-use disposables. #reuse #reuselegislation #stopplasticpollution

Bad news for fatberg lovers: plastic wet wipes are getting banned! Or are they?? 🧐 The government have reheated an old promise from 2018 to ban plastic in wet wipes. On the face of it, this is good news: • Almost all wet wipes contain plastic • They don't break down in the environment • Baffling as it might seem, lots of people flush them 🤦    As a result, wet wipes are the main culprits for bunging up our pipes. The blockages can be vast. Take 'The 'Monster of Whitechapel' fatberg: at 250 metres long and weighing 130 tonnes, that's a helluva lot of oil, dirt, wipes and who knows what else. Putting my sceptic's hat on for a minute here: • This government already promised to ban these 6 years ago • Is there time? With an election coming they'd have to get this going before the summer recess. • And remember: they've already cancelled the ban once before 🤷 I welcome the promised ban. Plastic wet wipes do a huge amount of harm and our efforts on education and behaviour change are better used elsewhere. But this smacks of the hunt for a good headline when our rivers are in such a dire state and the water industry is on the ropes. I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, those fatbergs will keep on growing under our feet... 🤢 ++ P.S. I'm Alex Robinson, CEO of environmental charity Hubbub . We bring business, government and civil society together to create campaigns that make it easier and more possible for all of us to make choices that are good for the environment. 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 to find out how, or get in touch for more.  

As announced on Saturday by Hon Reece Whitby, Minister for Environment, many plastic takeaway food containers and non-compostable produce bags for fresh fruit and veg are phased out in #WesternAustralia, as the State Government's nation-leading #PlanForPlastics pushes ahead. Since the plan commenced in 2021, WA has removed hundreds of millions of #SingleUsePlastic items from circulation, with up to 1.1 billion items to be saved from #landfill every year once the plan is fully implemented. It's expected a ban on single-use plastic takeaway food container lids and loose produce bags will save up to an additional 226 million #SingleUsePlastics from landfill and litter every year.  Minister Whitby was joined at the launch by Hon Simone McGurk, Minister for Water. Learn more: https://ow.ly/TO6K50TcbMH #PlasticsBan #ProduceBags #TakeawayFood #sustainability #CircularEconomy

Let's all step up and share the ways Culligan can help your businesses stay true to reducing the Plastic footprints for future generations! Ask a Culligan consultant how you can help without any additional effort or in most cases less effort.