The Mentos chewing gum manufacturer has trained raccoons to find cardboard packaging from their candies in trash cans for further recycling.
A successful test of the Mentos Recycling Group of Raccoons (RRF) took place in the city of Simi Valley, California, USA, where the animals collected about 75% of the packaging, according to a Mentos' press release.
Professional trainers trained the raccoons for 40 hours. Then the animals were released to the dumpsters, where they looked for packaging and transferred it to a special blue bin. The company's team picks up the collected garbage and sends it for recycling.
"The results weren't surprising," says Crystal Chen, a raccoon trainer at Working Wildlife. "Raccoons are actually incredibly intelligent and trainable, and they're already in our trash. In a weird way, it makes perfect sense. I just hope that people can pay attention to keep those Mentos gum bottles out of the waste stream!"
Craig Kuhra, vice president of marketing at Perfetti Van Melle, which owns the Mentos brand, said the company is trying to do its part to reduce its impact on the environment, reduce its use of plastic and meet its reduction, recycling and reuse goals.
The press service noted that from February 2022, Mentos packaging will consist of 90% recyclable cardboard.
As EcoPolitic reported earlier, in the world during 2022 were numerous positive environmental projects have been implemented of different scales – from small local to global ones, which are able to change the world and show that "there is hope".
