SC Johnson and Liverpool Football Club Team Up to Tackle Plastic Waste; Anfield Plastic to Become New Mr Muscle® Bottles

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New "Goals for Change" partnership to focus on sustainability, health and opportunity for underserved youth

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Sep 16, 2021, 10:00 ET

LIVERPOOL, England, Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SC Johnson, the maker of household consumer brands such as Mr Muscle®, Ecover® and Duck®, today announced it is teaming up with Liverpool Football Club to create a closed loop recycling model for the more than 500,000 plastic bottles used at Anfield each season.

From the start of the partnership, fans at Anfield will be able to place plastic beverage bottles in specially designed receptacles. SC Johnson will collect the plastic and repurpose it to create new Mr Muscle® trigger bottles.

Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, 16 September 2021: [Pictured R-L] Liverpool FC Legend, Luis Garcia, is pictured alongside Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO SC Johnson, and Billy Hogan, CEO Liverpool Football Club at the launch of a new global sustainability partnership between the global maker of household consumer brands and Liverpool Football Club. Called Goals for Change, the partnership kicks off with a closed loop recycling model which aims to repurpose more than 500,000 plastic bottles used at Anfield each season.

Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, 16 September 2021: [Pictured L-R] Liverpool Football Club CEO, Billy Hogan, presents SC Johnson Chairman and CEO, Fisk Johnson, with a branded LFC shirt to mark the launch of their new global sustainability partnership, Goals for Change. The partnership kicks off with a closed loop recycling model which aims to repurpose more than 500,000 plastic bottles used at Anfield each season.

Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, 16 September 2021: [Pictured R-L] To mark the launch of the new global sustainability partnership, Goals for Change, Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO, SC Johnson is presented with a branded LFC shirt by Billy Hogan, CEO Liverpool Football Club. The partnership will feature a series of initiatives to drive improvements in sustainability, health and hygiene and provide pathways to greater economic and social mobility for underserved youth across Liverpool FC’s communities in the UK, Asia and Latin America.

"Plastic waste is a threat to our planet for this and future generations," said Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson. "At SC Johnson, we believe we all have a responsibility to solve this critical environmental issue. Our partnership with Liverpool F.C. is one of the many steps SC Johnson is taking to move forward our vision for a waste-free world as it creates another local solution to this global problem by leveraging football to help close the plastic recycling loop."

The new partnership, called Goals for Change, kicks off a series of initiatives to drive improvements in sustainability and health and hygiene and provide pathways to greater economic and social mobility for underserved youth across Liverpool F.C.'s communities in the UK, Asia and Latin America.

Earlier this year, Liverpool F.C. launched the Red Way, its vision for sustainability and way of supporting society now and for future generations, underscoring the importance of a like-minded partnership, as SC Johnson's ambitions as a family company are to work for a better, more sustainable world.

Matt Scammell, Commercial Director at LFC: "We launched our sustainability programme the Red Way earlier this year and made a commitment to make a positive difference to our people, our communities and our planet. SC Johnson has made important step changes within their industry which have delivered incredible results through several sustainability initiatives.

"I feel very optimistic about the work we can do together through this partnership, both raising awareness and looking after the safety of our supporters and ultimately using our voices for good to help the next generation of Reds all around the world."

In addition to recycling plastic waste at Anfield, SC Johnson and Liverpool F.C. will team up to focus on health and hygiene. As the Official Cleaning and Disinfectant Partner of Liverpool F.C., SC Johnson will provide soaps and hand sanitizers throughout the stadium and AXA Training Centre to help promote health and hygiene. SC Johnson Professional, the company's commercial business, will work with Liverpool F.C. to establish a new standard of cleaning.

Some of the actions SC Johnson has taken to help create a waste free world include:

The company has committed to making 100% of its plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable, along with tripling the amount of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic content, by 2025. Currently, 65% of SC Johnson plastic packaging is designed to be recyclable, reusable or compostable, and 19% of SC Johnson's packaging is PCR, up from 10% in 2019. And since February 2021, all Mr Muscle® trigger bottles sold in the UK are now made using 100% PCR plastic.
SC Johnson is committed to continuing to remove excess plastics wherever possible. The company has eliminated more than 2.5 million kilograms of unnecessary or problematic plastic packaging since 2018.
Over the last two years, SC Johnson has formed first-of-its kind partnerships with U.S. professional sports teams, like the Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Brewers, to implement new recycling initiatives to better recycle the more than one million plastic cups that are used at the teams' respective stadiums throughout their seasons. The cups collected will then be turned into 100% post-consumer recycled bottles for Scrubbing Bubbles® bottles in North America.
SC Johnson introduced the company's first concentrated refill in the UK in 2019 for its Mr Muscle® line of cleaning products and introduced the first concentrated refill in the US in 2010. These concentrate bottles use about 80% less plastic compared to a typical trigger bottle. Additionally, the company's brand Ecover® is currently testing refill stations in Belgium, Netherlands, and the UK, with participation from retailers Delhaize, Albert Heijn, Sainsbury's and Waitrose.
In 2019, SC Johnson announced an expanded global partnership with Plastic Bank to stop plastic waste from entering the ocean and fight poverty. As part of the 3-year partnership, 30,000 metric tons of ocean-bound plastic will be collected, the equivalent of preventing approximately 1.5 billion plastic bottles from entering the world's oceans. The collected plastic is being incorporated into new product packaging including Mr Muscle® Platinum Window & Glass Cleaner in the UK and Windex® in North America.
In 2019, SC Johnson signed on as the 10th global partner with Ellen MacArthur Foundation to help advance a circular economy. The multi-year partnership builds on SC Johnson's decades long journey to improve the sustainability of its products. As part of this effort, the company has spent years working with industry experts to understand barriers to circularity and to find solutions to overcome them.
Earlier this week, the company launched a first of its kind immersive educational experience in London to raise awareness about ocean plastic pollution and how collectively, businesses, government, NGOs and individuals can make a difference. Called The Blue Paradox, the unique experience is free to the public and open 15th – 27^th September.

For more information on SC Johnson's efforts to create a waste free world, visit: www.scjohnson.com

About SC Johnson

SC Johnson is a family company dedicated to innovative, high-quality products, excellence in the workplace and a long-term commitment to the environment and the communities in which it operates. Based in the USA, the company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of household cleaning products and products for home storage, air care, pest control and shoe care, as well as professional products. It markets such well-known brands as GLADE^®, KIWI^®, OFF!^®, PLEDGE^®, RAID^®, SCRUBBING BUBBLES^®, SHOUT^®, WINDEX^®and ZIPLOC^® in the U.S. and beyond, with brands marketed outside the U.S. including AUTAN^®, BAYGON^®, BRISE^®, KABIKILLER^®, KLEAR^®, MR MUSCLE^® and RIDSECT^®. The 135-year-old company employs approximately 13,000 people globally and sells products in virtually every country around the world. www.scjohnson.com