HP brings recycling to life in a first-of-its-kind experiential art event, Create What's Next, featuring renowned artist partner Germane Barnes and a global call to action to return used ink and toner cartridges to HP Planet Partners’ recycling program.

CHALLENGE

The climate crisis is reaching a tipping point, and as HP aspires to become the world’s most sustainable and just technology company, committing to change has been a global priority. As such, HP’s Planet Partners program has worked to make printing—a notoriously climate-unfriendly activity—sustainable. Founded in 1991, Planet Partners has since pioneered ink cartridge circularity, a process where used ink and toner cartridges are transformed into new ones, instead of going into landfills. These cartridges take less energy and water to make, releasing fewer greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in the process. With over 1.1 billion ink cartridges used worldwide every year, HP’s circular recycling program could keep hundreds of tons of plastic out of our ecosystems.

There was just one problem—over 70% of used ink cartridges never get recycled. No matter how good Planet Partners is for the earth, cartridges can never be turned into new ones if they’re stuck in a trash can. But even with ambitions to become the world’s most sustainable and just tech company, HP can’t get there alone. As such, we launched an integrated campaign that would get customers to recycle their ink cartridges—and help change the world for good.

INSIGHT

As we began to tackle this problem, we were faced with an unusual paradox—the more anxious our audience got about climate change, the less likely they were to recycle plastic ink cartridges.

We realized that our audience isn’t just worried about climate change—they’re paralyzed by it. They see the climate crisis as insurmountable, far too severe to be mitigated by any one person alone. 51% of consumers feel completely helpless to do anything about climate change. So they do nothing. They think, what difference does it make if I recycle this ink cartridge or not? They throw it away.

Multiply this sentiment by millions of people and millions of ink cartridges and you’ll start to see the difference that it makes. You’ll start to see how 375 million ink cartridges end up in landfills every year.

EXECUTION

When an ink cartridge is recycled, it’s dissembled, shredded, then melted down into a new ink cartridge. To make this process as tangible as printing itself, we took it a step further and turned ink cartridges into art.

To bring the recycling process to life through art, we partnered with prolific artist, Germane Barnes of Studio Barnes. Partners at Conservation International and MIT Solve provided expertise in climate action and social entrepreneurship, while HP’s retail partner Staples, provided a destination for consumers to easily return their cartridges.

Timed with World Environment Day on June 5, we launched Create What’s Next, an interactive art exhibit that pulled back the curtain on ink cartridge circularity and let visitors become part of the process themselves. When visitors entered the exhibit, they selected an ink cartridge and were immersed in the three-step circular recycling process, from disassembly to shredding to transformation.

But it was more than just an art exhibit; it was a global call to action. After experiencing the process, visitors were invited to print their own works of art or what a version of a more sustainable future looks like and were given envelopes to recycle their cartridges at home, becoming active participants in HP Planet Partners’ recycling program, and contributing to a more environmentally conscious world.

The experience lived over a period of two days, seeing hundreds of VIP media and influencer visitors on day 1 and public visitors—including students and HP customers—on day 2. The team spread awareness of the exhibit and the HP Planet Partners program via owned, earned and paid media and through partnerships with influencers who embodied our sustainability-first mindset.