Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics and Keep America Beautiful Announce Hefty® EnergyBag™ Grant Recipients

Cobb County, Georgia, and Boise, Idaho, Awarded $50,000 Each to
Implement Community Waste Recovery Programs

MIDLAND, Mich.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dow
Packaging and Specialty Plastics and Keep
America Beautiful announced they have awarded two $50,000 grants to
organizations in Cobb County, Georgia (Keep Cobb Beautiful Inc.) and
Boise, Idaho to establish the Hefty®
EnergyBag™ program in their respective communities. The program,
which aligns with Dow’s 2025
Sustainability Goals, offers an innovative approach to diverting
plastics that are not currently recycled – such as chip bags and juice
pouches – from landfills and converting the materials into valuable
energy resources.

Building on a ten-year partnership through the Great
American Cleanup™, the largest community improvement program in the
U.S., Dow and Keep America Beautiful collaborated to announce the Hefty®
EnergyBag™ grant program in July 2017, and sought applications from
communities across the U.S. The two winning communities, Cobb County and
Boise, rated highest on key selection criteria, which included: host
city or municipality, materials recovery facility (MRF) and hauler
participation; number of targeted households; availability of existing
recycling carts for curbside collection; and accessibility of a suitable
end market outlet that will turn the plastics collected into an
alternative energy resource.

“We look forward to working with each community as they implement the
Hefty® EnergyBag™ program in their area in 2018,” said Jeff
Wooster, global sustainability director for Dow Packaging and Specialty
Plastics. “Cobb County and Boise’s adoption of the program is helping
Dow and its partners expand efforts to increase plastics recovery across
North America.”

The two winning communities will provide collected materials to
facilities utilizing advanced non-combustion conversion technologies
which can generate a liquid fuel, such as diesel. These technologies
also have the longer-term potential to generate feedstocks in a closed
loop system and can be used to produce new plastics, keeping resources
in use and at their highest value and thereby helping create a more
circular economy.

Keep Cobb Beautiful Inc., a local affiliate of Keep America Beautiful,
submitted the application on behalf of Cobb County. Keep Cobb Beautiful
and the City of Boise will be collaborating with key local groups
including a materials recovery facility, hauler, end market user and a
local brand owner/sponsor, each of which will be vital to the Hefty®
EnergyBag™ programs’ success.

“Keep Cobb Beautiful Inc. is excited about this innovative program and
is looking forward to bringing plastic recovery options and technology
to Cobb County residents,” said Kimberly White, executive director for
Keep Cobb Beautiful Inc.

"The City of Boise is committed to sustainability. This program provides
an important tool in managing our post-consumer plastics responsibly,"
said Catherine Chertudi, environmental program manager with the City of
Boise. "The opportunity to keep more plastics out of the landfill
through this innovative recovery program is very exciting."

Dow will provide guidelines for these communities and others to
implement the program, and oversee the initial planning, implementation
and measurement phases. Grant recipients are ultimately responsible for
managing the program and identifying and engaging key community
stakeholders.

“The Hefty® EnergyBag™ program will complement existing
plastic recycling systems in each community,” said Diego Donoso,
business president for Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics. “By
investing in resource recovery, Boise and Cobb County will be able to
divert more non-recycled plastics from landfills by turning these
valuable materials into new energy resources.”

To date, Hefty® EnergyBag™ curbside and non-curbside
programs, which include a 2014 EnergyBag™ Pilot in Citrus Heights,
California, have diverted more than 17 tons of plastics from the
landfill. The first full-scale Hefty® EnergyBag™ program
launched in Omaha in September 2016. In its first year, the Hefty®
EnergyBag™ Omaha program has collected more than 19,500 bags and
diverted approximately 11 tons of plastics, the equivalent to
approximately 8.6 million snack-sized chip bags, from the landfill.

To learn more about the Hefty® EnergyBag™ program, visit www.heftyenergybag.com.

About Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics

Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics combines core strengths of R&D,
worldwide reach, broad product lines and industry expertise to deliver
new solutions in plastics to meet consumer demand in end use markets
like food packaging, personal hygiene, footwear, transportation and
infrastructure. The business is one of the largest polyethylene
producers in the world, and is a leading innovator and collaborator
across the value chain on technologies and applications that are high
performing and sustainable.

About Keep America Beautiful

Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement
nonprofit organization, inspires and educates people to take action
every day to improve and beautify their community environment.
Established in 1953, we strive to End Littering, Improve Recycling and
Beautify America’s Communities. We believe everyone has a right to live
in a clean, green and beautiful community, and shares a responsibility
to contribute to that vision. Behavior change – steeped in education,
research and behavioral science – is the cornerstone of Keep America
Beautiful. We empower generations of community stewards with volunteer
programs, hands-on experiences, curricula, practical advice and other
resources to deliver measurable environmental, economic and social
benefits. The organization is driven by more than 600 state and local
affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the support of corporate
partners, social and civic service organizations, academia,
municipalities and government officials. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Donate and take action at kab.org.

About Reynolds Consumer Products

Reynolds Consumer Products is a leading provider of quality household
essentials that have been trusted for generations. Our Reynolds®
and Hefty® brand products help with preparation, cooking,
cleanup, and storage. The Hefty® brand is best known for
strong, dependable waste bags, available in the U.S. at mass merchants,
grocers, and other retail stores nationwide. For more information, visit Hefty.com.

About Dow

The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) combines science and technology knowledge
to develop premier materials science solutions that are essential to
human progress. Dow has one of the strongest and broadest toolkits in
the industry, with robust technology, asset integration, scale and
competitive capabilities that enable it to address complex global
issues. Dow’s market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of advanced
materials, industrial intermediates, and plastics businesses deliver a
broad range of differentiated technology-based products and solutions
for customers in high-growth markets such as packaging, infrastructure,
and consumer care. Dow is a subsidiary of DowDuPont (NYSE: DWDP), a
holding company comprised of Dow and DuPont with the intent to form
three strong, independent, publicly traded companies in agriculture,
materials science and specialty sectors. More information can be found
at www.dow.com.

®TM Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an
affiliated company of Dow

Contacts

The Dow Chemical Company
Jarrod Erpelding
+1-989-633-1863
[email protected]