We all know that plastic bottles are recyclable, but many people might not know that the caps on these bottles almost always are not. Aveda is trying to change this. Earlier this year, Aveda announced that stores would collect plastic caps from customers between March 10th and May 10th, and any customer with 25 caps or more would get a free sample of an Aveda product. My friend Jeni told me about the program after she saw the announcement in SHAPE magazine.
Since I often use a plastic water bottle several dozen times before recycling it, I had a HUGE collection of caps (for when I misplace a cap and need one) stashed away in a box. So I gave out my caps in sets of 25 to my friends so that they could get their own free samples! But after May 10th came and went, I was already in the habit of collecting caps so I kept right on collecting. I soon realized I had stashes of caps everywhere, and when I gathered them all together I found I had over 200! (That sounds like a crazy amount, but I should clarify by saying that this included any and all hard plastic caps, so they were from shampoo, drinks, detergent, lotion, coolant, bleach, etc).
So sometime around the middle of June, I e-mailed Aveda to find out if they would still accept caps – no freebies necessary – I just wanted to help recycle. When they said yes, my friends started bringing me their caps, too. I took a large bag to Southpoint in July, but hadn’t been back until last night when I hauled an overflowing Target bag, brimming with caps into the store.
Since I wasn’t sure they would really want all those caps, I felt a little weird about bringing in such a big bag, but I was pleasantly surprised by the sales girl’s response. She was quite grateful, but the best part was that she told me Aveda has already begun selling products packaged in bottles utilizing the recycled caps they collected over the last year. I felt so green at that moment. Thank you to Jeni, Kathy and Kerry for contributing regularly to my cap recycling effort!
I plan to keep it up until they turn me away, and I encourage others to save caps for their local Aveda store.
4 comments:
Excellent! Keep up the good work. Every little green deed makes a difference!
Like father, like daughter. The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree does it? He's had a good influence on you! I wish there were more people like you who go out of their way to make an effort to clean up the planet. Thank you!
Ditto what jane said, we should all be more like you [at least in this case :) ] Seriously, with so many knuckleheads out there who don't even bother to recycle newspaper or cans, you are a dreamboat! Don't ever stop.
I am so glad they're still taking them. I'm building another stash for you as we speak (or rather as I write) hahaha!
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