By Kirsten Gappelberg, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Mary Kay
SOURCE:Mary Kay
DESCRIPTION:
Time flies when you’re having fun and the 2015 holiday season is upon us! This is my favorite time of year because it’s filled with fun family gatherings, cooking, shopping (a personal favorite of mine) and of course, gift-wrapping. With all the leftover shopping bags, wrapping paper, tissue paper, gift packaging, etc. the trash fills up a little faster than normal. Did you know that household waste increases by more than 25 percent from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day? And in the U.S., annual trash from gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons!
These are statistics we think about all year long at Mary Kay, and we’re making strides to be more sustainable and green. For example, our global manufacturing facility achieved zero landfill site status in 2012. Why is this important? Well, that means when this facility is producing Mary Kay’s awesome skin care and color cosmetics – for the world – we’re recycling 90 percent or more of the waste!
Mary Kay China has an amazing wastewater treatment system that cleans all of the wastewater generated from manufactured products for our Chinese consumers. The water produced from this treatment system is so clean that is used to fill a koi fish pond located just outside of the facility on the Mary Kay China campus. Impressive, right?
Our distribution centers across the U.S. have been using bio-peanuts since 2006 to ship product orders. These things are pretty phenomenal. Not only do they ensure that millions of Mary Kay color cosmetics and skin care products arrive safely and undamaged, they are also 100 percent biodegradable – they dissolve in water! And in one year, Mary Kay uses enough bio peanuts to fill 100,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
We’re proud of our sustainable efforts and continue to work towards improving our environmental performance. And guess what? You can help, too! Maybe you put Mary Kay® products on your holiday wish list or you’ve bought some for your friends and family. Recycle your Mary Kay flip-top caps and color refill cases, by sending them here, and for every 10 we receive we’ll plant one tree in the U.S. with the help of our friends from the Arbor Day Foundation.
Tweet me:#MaryKay is doing their part to be green all year. http://bit.ly/mkgreen
KEYWORDS: Environment and Climate Change, Trees, Mary Kay, Arbor Day Foundation
