Personal care products company Colgate-Palmolive (New York, NY / USA; www.colgate.com) has committed to making 100% of its packaging for three of its product categories – home, pet and personal care – completely recyclable by 2020. In addition, the company has committed to work towards developing a plastic recyclable toothpaste tube or package, which would bring its fourth product category, oral care, close to the same sustainability standard. Most toothpaste tubes are made from unrecyclable plastic laminates.

Colgate-Palmolive has also agreed to increase the average recycled content of its packaging from 40% to 50% and to reduce or eliminate the use of PVC in packaging.

The commitments were announced by US environmental group As You Sow (Oakland, California; www.asyousow.org), which in 2012 filed a shareholder resolution with Colgate-Palmolive requesting that it explore the feasibility of adopting an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy for post-consumer packaging. The resolution argued that such a policy would help reduce carbon emissions and other pollution resulting from the company’s business practices. As You Sow said it withdrew the proposal after Colgate-Palmolive agreed to engage in dialogue which led to the new policy statement by the company.

“We congratulate Colgate-Palmolive on its leadership in phasing out unrecyclable packaging,” said Conrad MacKerron, senior VP of As You Sow. “Huge amounts of embedded value and energy are being buried in landfills. These packages should be designed to be recycled, reducing the use of virgin natural resources and mitigating emissions that contribute to climate change.”