L'Occitane HK tackles ocean waste with pop-up exhibition at Harbour City

L'Occitane has partnered with Plastic Odyssey, a global initiative against plastic pollution, and Harbour City to launch a pop-up exhibition, inviting the public to rediscover the relationship between the ocean and plastic.

It comes as L'Occitane serves as the main sponsor of Plastic Odyssey, which stopped in Hong Kong from 13 to 27 October to promote solutions for tackling plastic pollution at its source—on land.

Available from 16 to 27 October at Ocean Terminal Lobby, Harbour City, the exhibition aimed to be the first 100% sustainable exhibition space created by the three parties. To achieve this goal, all furniture and structures were made from recycled plastics and repurposed after the event. The designer furniture, crafted by reEDIT from recycled materials, featured information about the amount of recycled plastic used, reinforcing its commitment to reducing waste.

A spokesperson from L’OCCITANE Group told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the campaign targeted a range of sectors, including eco-conscious individuals, Gen Z, families, general public, as well as sustainability entrepreneurs and corporate partners.

As part of the exhibition, an immersive art installation titled “OCEAN or PLASTIC?” was featured. It enabled visitors to experience the plight of fish surrounded by plastic, created from used plastic bottles and recycled flakes by local upcycling design studio reEDIT.

The exhibition also featured Plastic Odyssey's global expedition and philosophy in combating ocean plastic pollution, and the recycling statistics of beautiful empty bottles by L’OCCITANE in the local market, and artworks from local upcyclists.

During the pop-up exhibition, a special workshop titled “Charm Your Bag with Upcycled Art” was featured. Participants could create unique bag charms or phone straps using colourful upcycled plastic letter charms, enabling everyone to express their creativity through recycled art.

The campaign was promoted through L’OCCITANE’s Instagram and Facebook pages, print materials, and digital panels at Harbour City, according to the spokesperson. 

L'OCCITANE supports global initiatives to reduce plastic waste through campaigns such as the #MEGA recycling programme in Hong Kong, which encourages customers to recycle beauty bottles from any brand. These bottles are sent to V Cycle for recycling into useful materials. To further engage the audience, visitors could pre-register online for the pop-up exhibition and join the #MEGA recycling programme afterwards to receive a free 10ml shea butter hand cream from L'OCCITANE.

“As Plastic Odyssey’s main sponsor, L’OCCITANE en Provence supports a project that aims to transform plastic waste into a valuable resource, and thus participates in the development of a new economy. That is why we are proud to be associated with Plastic Odyssey, a tremendous human and humanistic adventure,” said Adrien Geiger, CEO, L’OCCITANE en Provence. 

“Their arrival in Hong Kong gives us the perfect opportunity to further strengthen our local commitment to waste reduction and engage our consumers even more in this critical mission.” In FY 2024, L'OCCITANE's customers in Hong Kong have achieved the third-highest recycling rate for beauty empty bottles among our global markets, following Malaysia and Japan. Since L’OCCITANE launched the #MEGA programme in Hong Kong in 2021 to promote the recycling of beauty empty bottles, the brand has recycled over 1.48 million empty bottles in the city as of June 2024," Geiger added. 

"Since we started this journey in 2021, L’OCCITANE en Provence Hong Kong has been committed to promoting local beauty bottle recycling, collecting bottles from all brands from day one. We are always learning and now aim to explore how we can raise more awareness and make better use of recycled plastics. That’s why we have partnered with reEDIT, Harbour City, and other collaborators; the 'OCEAN or PLASTIC?' pop-up exhibition itself is made from 100% recyclable materials. We want to plant a seed in the community, showing that small changes can lead to something big and impactful,” said Eric Lui, general manager of L’OCCITANE en Provence Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong is a strategic stopover for Plastic Odyssey. It serves as a bridge between Asia and the rest of the world, a place where recycling and plastic-reducing innovations can have a global impact. Our mission is to demonstrate that it's possible to turn plastic waste into valuable resources, and with its dynamism and vision, Hong Kong is the ideal partner for this transformation and to help scale these solutions across the entire Asia region.” said Simon  Bernard, president and co-founder, Plastic Odyssey.

Don’t miss: L’Occitane HK debuts first hair lab to raise awareness of hair loss issues

Back in July, L'Occitane launched its first-ever pop-up concept Botanical Hair Lab in Hong Kong to raise awareness of hair loss issues among Hongkongers. 

The hair lab targeted both women and men above 25 years old who may have hair concern, including suffering hair loss, the potential to have hair loss problems with impact from different lifestyle.

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