Sustainability in Consumer Products

3M has been a leader in Sustainability for decades. In the Consumer Business, 3M has worked to continuously improve the Sustainability of our manufacturing operations. For example, we are proud that our Cynthiana, Kentucky plant, maker of Post-it® Notes, has maintained zero waste to landfill status since Q4 2016. And our Hutchinson, Minnesota plant, which makes Scotch® Magic™ Tape and other products, reduced its energy use by 18.4% from 2000-2018 and reduced its water use by 54% over the same period. In addition, in 2018, 91% of the waste from this plant was either reused, recycled, or converted to energy. Quite simply, you can be assured that 3M is committed to manufacturing our products responsibly.

More importantly, our commitment to Sustainability does not end with our manufacturing operations. The 3M Consumer Business team is also working to make our packaging more sustainable. This entails everything from reducing the amount of packaging, using packaging materials that can easily be recycled, and using packaging materials made from recycled content.

We are also building Sustainability Value Commitments into the products we sell to consumers. Examples of Sustainability Value Commitments for new products include reusability, recyclability, energy/waste/water savings, responsible sourcing, and/or recycled or renewable raw materials. This commitment also includes products with a core purposed of helping to solve an environmental or social challenge, such as improving air quality or improving worker safety.