German consumer goods giant Henkel (Düsseldorf; www.henkel.com) is supporting the Plastic Bank (Vancouver, British Columbia / Canada; www.plasticbank.org) – a social enterprise that was set up to combat plastic waste in the oceans and open up new opportunities for poor people in the Carribean nation of Haiti. As part of the group's cooperation with Plastic Bank, three new collection points are being set up in Haiti, where locals can hand in plastic waste they have collected and swap it for money or social services.

The collected waste is then sorted, recycled and fed back into the value-added chain by Plastic Bank under the brand name "Social Plastic" (www.socialplastic.org). "Value is thus generated from plastic before the waste enters rivers, lakes or the oceans," explains Henkel. The company also intends to use the recycled materials obtained through this initiative in its own product packaging in future.

"Together with Plastic Bank, we would like to contribute towards ensuring that less plastic makes its way into the oceans, while, at the same time, improving the lives of a large number of people who are living in poverty," says Kathrin Menges, executive vice president human resources and chairwoman of the Henkel Sustainability Council. "We also regard it as important to further heighten consumers' awareness of plastics." Henkel's targets for 2020 include a reduction in packaging weight of 20% per sales unit ‏(base year 2010). By 2020, the company wants to increase the proportion of recycled PET in its bottle portfolio in Europe to 33%.

On 14 November 2017, at the "World Climate Change Conference" in Bonn / Germany, Plastic Bank was presented with the UN "Lighthouse Momentum for Change Award" for its Haiti project. The social enterprise, which was founded by David Katz in 2013, has also initiated other environmental projects with groups including Marks & Spencer, IBM and Shell. Two years ago, it also received the "Sustainia Community Award".