Recovery program turns sachets into cement

MANILA, Philippines - An environment sustainability campaign has converted more than 12 million sachets of a laundry detergent into thousands of cement pavers donated to various schools nationwide.

Top officials of Unilever Philippines, Smart Communications and Cebuana Lhuillier – proponents of the Sachet Recovery Program – over the weekend launched the third year of the campaign at Mandaluyong Elementary School in Mandaluyong City.

Seven thousand pavers were donated to Mandaluyong Elementary School. 

Some of the pavers were also used as foundation of an environment-friendly laundry facility in Mayora, Leyte, which was affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda in November 2013.

The campaign enables consumers to exchange sachets of Surf products for free Smart texts at Cebuana Lhuillier branches nationwide. Every empty sachet of any Surf product can be converted to 10 free Smart texts.

The collected sachets will then be brought to a recycling facility where it will be used as an aggregate to produce cement pavers, which will then be donated to partner schools and communities.

Benjie Yap, Unilever Philippines vice president for home care, said more than 4.5 million sachets of laundry brand Surf were collected in the first year of the campaign, which was launched in 2013.

“In 2014, we collected an additional 7.5 million empty sachets nationwide,” he added, noting that the first two years of the program have produced more than 120,000 cement pavers, most of which were donated to schools around the country.

During the launching, top officials of the three companies also renewed the firms’ commitment for the environment-sustainability program.

“This year, bigger participation (of the three companies) will definitely produce greater results for the benefit of the environment and Filipino communities,” said Unilever Philippines chairman and chief executive officer Rohit Jawa.

“This opens the door to engaging millions more of Filipinos in this endeavor,” added Napoleon Nazareno, Smart Communications president.

Unilever has also conducted studies to extend the program to cover other products of the company. Yap unveiled Uniliver’s plan to tie-up with local government units to increase awareness on the sachet recovery program of the three companies.

During the launch yesterday, the office of Mandaluyong Mayor Benjamin Abalos Jr. also announced plans to issue a memorandum enjoining schools in the city to participate in the program.