ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS OF CLOROX Production and The Environment The goal in our manufacturing operations is to achieve zero accidental toxic releases, of which Clorox is close to achievin g. Continuous environmental investment in our plant equipment and processes, combined with the training and skill of Cloro x employees, make this goal attainable. As a result, The Clorox Company has the lowest toxic releases per thousand dollar sales of any major company in the cosmetics and soap industry. Environmental Packaging The enthusiasm and creativity of our packaging team continues to deliver impressive environmental accomplishments through s ource reduction, use of recycled materials and waste recycling. Clorox's Packaging Policies are: 1. Use as little packaging material as needed to do the job. 2. Use recycled material wherever it is environmentally and economically sound to do so. 3. Make Clorox packaging as recyclable as possible. Some form of packaging will always be with us because of its essential role in permitting products to be shipped, stored an d used safely. But Clorox package designers and engineers employ new technologies and processes to yield significant econo mies of material that reduce a package's impact on the environment. Using less packaging material in our product container s not only saves resources but it also reduces weight for transportation. We aggressively continue to increase our ability to use post-consumer recycled (PCR) material in our plastic packaging. Pa ckaging containing PCR plastic includes all sizes of Clorox liquid bleach, Soft Scrub liquid cleansers, Formula 409 all-pur pose cleaner, Pine-Sol cleaner and many other brands produced at several plant locations. Hurdles To Overcome With PCR Packaging Imbalances in the supply and demand for recycled materials are an ongoing problem and a major concern. We have seen signif icant improvements in the quality of recycled plastic, but it is a challenge to identify consistent supplies as prices incr ease for both virgin and recycled plastic. Recycling at Clorox We use HDPE and PET, the two most readily recyclable plastics, for almost all of our household products plastic packaging. Where curbside or drop-off recycling facilities exist, the recycling of Clorox containers closes the loop. Recycled mater ials represent 27 percent of all Clorox packaging -- more than 100 million pounds. Today's packaging uses over 68 million pounds less virgin material than it would if we were using 1988 packages, a reduction of 20 percent. Environmental Product Design Today's Clorox products and our new product innovations must offer consumers value in performance, safety and environmental quality. We have committed significant resources to understanding the environmental fate of our products. The scientists at our technical center continually develop new product formulations that meet our high standards for quality, performance , human and environmental safety. All Clorox cleaning products are designed for safe, down-the-drain disposal. Clorox liquid bleach reacts and breaks down quickly, primarily into salt and water, which is why bleach cannot build up in the environment. Many of our most popular products are bleach-based. Green Design For Glass Bottles Glass bottles used for Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressings were a major target for source reduction. Our goal was to elimi nate 10 million pounds of glass used to make the bottles, or about 3 percent of the Company's total annual use of packaging materials. At the completion of our source-reduction project, each bottle's glass content had been reduced by 27 percent. Actual savings amounted to 18 million pounds of glass per year and exceeded our original goal by 80 percent. Additionall y, the bottles continue to contain 25 percent recycled glass. Less fuel is required to distribute them. These new bottles have been well-received by consumers. Green Design of Display Pallets Our packaging engineers redesigned display pallets that are used in warehouse club stores for Hidden Valley Ranch salad dre ssing and K.C. Masterpiece barbecue sauce. The new design accommodates more bottles per corrugated cell, reducing the num ber of dividers needed and cutting the use of corrugated material by 250,000 pounds per year. Additionally, we provided ne w manufacturing standards to our corrugated suppliers that permit them to reduce the amount of fiber in the corrugated mate rial without affecting the display units' strength. Our source-reduction projects from 1988--the Company's baseline year--through May 1994 have eliminated the use of more than 30 million pounds of packaging annually.