3M partners for the correct destination of the packaging of its products

The project stimulates companies to act on the circular economy to reduce environmental impact and improve recyclable material collectors’ quality of life.

The Give your Hand to the Future (Dê a Mão para o Futuro in Portuguese) project seeks to structure and train cooperatives to recover and forward post-consumer packaging for recycling. It is a joint effort built by Abihpec (Personal Hygiene, Perfumery, and Cosmetics Brazilian Association), Abipla (Brazilian Association of Hygiene, Cleaning and Sanitizing Products Industries for Home Use and Professional Use), and Abimapi (Brazilian Manufacturers Association of Biscuit, Pasta, and Industrialized Bread & Cakes).

Currently, 194 companies have joined the project, 148 of which are cooperatives in 21 states in Brazil, involving 5,000 cooperative professionals. “The program has a 15-year history, and we registered about eight years ago,” says Ivi Barbosa, LCM (Life Cycle Management) specialist at 3M.

She recalls that the company’s commitment to the initiative started with the cosmetics and cleaning products of the brands Nexcare, Scotch-Brite, and 3M. Still, the growing concern with the circular economy is something that permeates all partºs of business. “Sustainability has been a strategic pillar in the development of new products for 3M in recent years, and we have been thinking a lot about how, in addition to recovering packaging, we can use this material in the manufacture of new items”, she said.  “With a portfolio of more than 40,000 products, recovering material is a huge challenge. It is very pulverized. For this reason, Give your Hand to the Future is such an important front to help us give post-consumer packaging an environmentally correct destination.”