Tag: Plastic reduction

Mumbai, India – SUV automotive brand Jeep in India has launched its flagship corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative called the ‘Mission One Earth’ where it encourages local communities and their customers to do their adventures and travel endeavors more responsibly for the best of the environment.

‘Mission One Earth’ kicks with the first project where Jeep India has invited customers and the local community of the Ladakh region, home to the Himalayan mountain range, to collect 1500 kilograms of plastic waste from the roads leading to the mountain range, which is home to the highest motorable roads in the world.

Said initiative was integrated with Jeep India’s annual customer drive experience, ‘Legendary Jeep Trails’, where Jeep customers drove in twenty Jeep SUVs from Shimla to Srinagar via Leh for over 2000 kms for this plastic reduction drive. 

Over three hundred people from the local Ladakh community participated in this initiative.

“For eight decades, Jeep has brought people together through driving adventures. ‘Mission One Earth’ gives a special purpose to this adventure, which Jeep customers can enjoy responsibly,” said Roland Bouchara, CEO and managing director, Stellantis India

In addition to the plastic waste cleanup, Jeep India has also placed specially designed and digitally enabled ‘reverse vending machines’ in high-footfall tourist locations along the high altitude passes in the Himalayas. The collected plastic waste will be recycled into Jeep merchandise. 

Tourists who feed the reverse vending machines with plastic waste will receive a coupon which can be redeemed for environment-friendly Jeep merchandise that will be sent to the individuals directly by Jeep India. The reverse vending machines will continue to remain at these tourist locations and will be monitored and maintained by Jeep India for a year.

“Mission One Earth is another step towards achieving a larger goal of empowering our customers to enjoy JeepLife responsibly with our motto ‘Responsible Adventure’. We will be giving scale to Mission One Earth over the coming months by sharing our objectives with Jeep network partners and Jeep customers across the country,” said Nipun J Mahajan, head of Jeep India.

Meanwhile, Rahul Pansare, head of marketing and PR at Jeep India, commented, “Legendary Jeep Trails, our annual customer drive experience property, was an ideal platform for us to introduce Mission One Earth to our participating customers. Jeep Trails has grown to be hugely popular in the Jeep Community with over 15,000 members already signed up on the Jeeplife platform.” 

He added, “We wanted to spread the message of Responsible Adventure via ‘Mission One Earth’ and we have achieved considerable success in underlining our intent. The next step is to take ‘Mission One Earth’ to the rest of India.”

Jeep India plans to spread the message of ‘Responsible Adventure’ to every part of the country through its Dealer network and 50,000-plus customer base. Therefore, in the coming months, every Jeep dealership in India will have an element of Mission One Earth that will help spread the message.

Shanghai, China – Restaurant company Yum China has announced the launch of a new plastic reduction initiative across its KFC and Pizza Hut branches in China, in response to new environmental regulations in the country.

The latest campaign is expected to reduce approximately 8,000 tons of non-degradable plastics annually starting from 2021, replacing traditional plastic packaging with paper straws, paper bags, and biodegradable plastic bags.

With KFC, the brand’s campaign under the initiative is launched as the “Be Natural, Be You” sustainability campaign, raising consumers’ awareness of environmental protection by encouraging sustainable practices. Beginning this year, KFC chains across China  will stop using plastic straws and over 90% of KFC restaurants will be replacing disposable plastic cutlery with wooden cutlery. By 2025, it is expected that all plastic packaging and cutlery will be phased out across KFC restaurants  in China.

Biodegradable Cutlery
(Left) KFC biodegradable packaging and cutlery, (Right) Pizza Hut biodegradable packaging and cutlery

Meanwhile, Pizza Hut has already phased out the use of plastic straws across their branches in the country by the end of 2020, while over 70% of Pizza Hut restaurants across the country have replaced existing plastic bags with paper bags or biodegradable plastic bags. By 2022, Pizza Hut will be phasing out the use of plastic bags in the branches in China.

“The new plastic reduction initiatives reinforce our sustainability strategy to drive meaningful change through packaging innovation and reduction. In line with our long-term commitment of supporting economic, social and environmental development, we are committed to working with customers, partners, and all other stakeholders to promote a more sustainable future,” said Joey Wat, CEO of Yum China.