New perfume by O Boticário captures the scent of an iconic bay before pollution struck

Anyone who visits Guanabara Bay now will struggle to believe it was once a pristine place of natural beauty and home to hundreds of bottlenose dolphins. Recreating the smell of the bay before it became a poisonous dumping ground is a potent way to connect people with what's been lost — more visceral and emotionally resonant than statistics or overly familiar images of garbage drifting across water.

Getting under the skin of consumers could be key to unlocking responsible behavior. While O Boticário operates over 4,000 collection points for empty cosmetics packaging from any brand and also offers refills, recycling and return rates are dismal across industries. Take McDonald's: in Germany, customers pay a EUR 2 deposit for reusable cups, but only 40% are returned to restaurants.

To tackle the problem, O Boticário will be partnering with Grupo Boticário's startup accelerator on innovative solutions to solid waste management while continuing to push consumers towards collective action — "Either we change our habits or the beauty and smell of the most beautiful places on the planet could disappear."