The beauty industry is embracing innovative solutions for tackling waste–and winning more customer loyalty in the process.   There’s no doubt that the beauty industry does a lot of good, from enhancing personal hygiene and contributing to self-esteem, to giving back through charitable causes. There is also no way to ignore the environmental impact packaging from such a massive business has on the Earth. With plastic taking some 400 years to degrade and filling what’s believed to be more than 70 percent of landfills, the prediction that there’ll be more plastic in the ocean than fish by the year 2050 seems devastatingly plausible.   According to TerraCycle, a company that helps brands and individuals recycle and upcycle to reduce the level of unnecessary landfill waste, the global cosmetics industry produces 120 billion units of packaging annually, contributing to the loss of 18 million acres of forest each year.   Motivating consumers to recycle personal care items has challenges. For one, it takes extra effort since these products are often housed in bathrooms, away from the standard kitchen recycle bin. TerraCycle reports that 50 percent of people don’t recycle bathroom waste including shampoo and shower gel bottles because they feel it is inconvenient. That said, the industry has taken responsibility in the past and made an impact. “While statistics are dire, the beauty industry has had success stories with the banning of plastic microbeads in the U.S., U.K. and Canada but has plenty of room for improvement to become environmentally friendly,” says Alex Payne, a spokesperson for TerraCycle.   While swapping plastic for eco-friendly packaging may increase manufacturing costs initially, the increase can likely be offset with potential government subsidies and more customers who prefer sustainable packaging. In fact, the decision to "go green" in formulation, manufacturing practices and packaging could pay off big. Fifty-five percent of people polled in a recent report by J. Walter Thompson Intelligence titled The New Sustainability: Regeneration stated they are more likely to buy beauty products if the company claims to be sustainable. Interestingly, the same report found that 77 percent of people think products with a negative environmental impact should cost more.   Recycling and Reusing   A handful of beauty brands including Burt’s Bees, Eos Products, LimeLife by Alcone and L’Occitane have teamed up with TerraCycle to offer consum- ers easy and free options for recycling. Customers can access a prepaid shipping label from TerraCycle’s website, fill any box with the brand’s cleaned waste and ship it out to be remolded into new products. Herbal Essences, Josie Maran, Garnier, Tom’s of Maine and Weleda are also part of TerraCycle’s free recycling solution. For a fee, TerraCycle offers an option for other cosmetic brands in the form of their zero-waste box. Empty eye shadow palettes, lipstick tubes, makeup brushes and deodorant sticks can be shipped to the company, and thus saved from the landfill.   Just this year, TerraCycle launched an intiative called Loop to introduce a new circular shopping system in Paris and select states within the U.S. designed to eliminate plastic packaging. “The world is in a waste crisis and we can’t recycle our way out of it. We must attack the issue at the root cause, which is single-use packaging,” explains Eric Rosen, spokesperson for Loop. The concept of Loop is like a modern-day milkman delivery system, rebooted with loads of items from personal care to household. Consumers go online and choose the products they’d like to order, which arrive in durable, reusable containers inside Loop’s exclusively designed reusable tote. “Consumers will no longer own the packaging, only the product,” Rosen explains. Beauty brands with products available from Loop include Soapply, Herbal Essences, The Body Shop, Love Beauty and Planet, Ren Clean Skincare and Pantene.   After use, consumers schedule a pickup time and send Loop’s containers to be cleaned, sanitized and reused again and again, removing plastic and shipping cardboard from the equation completely. Loop is currently available in select states and planning on expanding to new cities in 2020. Loop is made possible with the help of partner retailers like Walgreens and Kroger in each market launched. There is no membership or subscription fee; the only cost a consumer incurs is for the product and a refundable deposit for containers, tote and shipping. Brands big and small are stepping up and making commitments to change. Both Unilever and L’Oreìal have promised by the year 2025 to convert plastic packaging to reusable, recyclable or compostable. Esteìe Lauder Companies are on board too, aiming to have 75 to 100 percent of packaging recyclable, reusable or refillable by 2025 and increasing postconsumer recycled material in packaging by up to 50 percent.   Procter & Gamble (P&G) plans to offer 100 percent recyclable packaging by 2030 and has partnered with Loop to offer refillable options. Just this year, P&G’s brand Pantene launched an aluminum bottle for shampoo and conditioner through the service.   Green Materials and Rethinking Plastic   Alternative material options are gaining popularity in the beauty packaging world as brands shift into a “greener” mindset. Bamboo, for example, is biodegradable, compostable and one of the fastest-growing plants in the world. Cosmetic companies like Antonym are using bamboo for eyeshadow and blush palettes and as the base for makeup brushes. Reusable and refillable, glass is an ideal alternative for companies looking to stay clean and minimal, such as RMS Beauty. Like glass, metal is another smart option. Kjaer Weis uses quality metal in makeup palettes meant to be kept and reused as part of the company’s refill system. Already recycled solutions such as paperboard made from recycled paper pulp and recycled plastic are widely used alternatives. Garnier Fructis has adapted this practice for its shampoo and conditioner bottles, with 50 percent of the material coming from postconsumer recycled plastic.   Since plastic isn’t going away overnight, savvy solutions for repurposing are key. The Body Shop recently launched Community Trade recycled plastic from Bengaluru, India, an initiative in partnership with Plastics for Change: “We don’t think plastic–as a material–is bad. In fact, it’s one of the most versatile materials ever made and, if used responsibly, can be sustainable. The problem is when we don’t value plastic and see it as trash, rather than something we can recycle and reuse,” says Lee Mann, global community trade manager for The Body Shop.   With this initiative, The Body Shop also recognizes the human side of the plastic story. The program helps to empower the marginalized waste pickers in Bengaluru, who can receive a fair price for their work, predictable income and access to better working conditions. By the end of the year, The Body Shop will have purchased 250 tons of Community Trade recycled plastic to use in the brand’s 250 milliliter haircare bottles, with plans to scale up purchasing to 900 tons within three years. The bottles created contain 100 percent recycled plastic (excluding the bottle caps) with 15 percent derived from Community Trade recycled plastic. “Brands are starting to be more sustainable and aware of their plastic use. We absolutely want to encourage other brands to start using recycled plastic picked by waste pickers,” Mann says.   It appears that all generations, not just millennials and Generation Z, are taking a stand on sustainability. According to J. Walter Thompson Intelligence’s recent sustainability study, 90 percent of adult consumers think companies and brands have a responsibility to take care of the planet and its people. The same report concluded 91 percent of adults think companies and brands that pollute the environment should be fined.   We have officially entered the age of “less is more.” Retailers must factor sustainability into the brands they work with–and they may even want to go a step further and green their own business. Manufacturers and retailers alike will win by delivering big on product, but light on packaging.

As consumers become increasingly aware of the pollution and waste caused by single-use products, items like plastic straws, water bottles and disposable coffee cups have become maligned. But what about our beauty routines?   A quick glance in your bathroom cabinet or makeup bag is sure to throw up a whole host of products, which are single-use, packaged in plastic, and just as likely to end up in landfill.   It is estimated that there is more than 150m tonnes of plastic waste polluting the world’s oceans with an additional 13m tonnes being dumped each year.   Scientists estimate by 2050 there could be more plastic, by weight, than fish in our seas. The government is taking steps to improve this: introducing a manufacturing ban on microbeads – tiny balls of plastic used in body scrubs, toothpaste and facial exfoliators – in 2018. But there is more to do.   So how can you make your beauty routine more sustainable in 2020? The Independent rounds up five simple beauty resolutions you can make this year to help you become a more conscientious consumer.   Ditch cotton pads and face wipes for reusable and biodegradable versions   Removing your makeup is arguably one of the most time consuming and, let’s face it, annoying parts of a beauty routine.   When you get home from a long day at work or a heavy night out, the last thing you want to do is perform a full-on skincare routine. In this scenario, many of us turn to face wipes, which boast the ability to remove makeup and partially cleanse our faces in seconds.     But while they might be insanely convenient, the damage face wipes are inflicting on the environment is vast.   According to research group Mintel, 47 per cent of people in the UK regularly use face wipes, which take years to breakdown in landfills due to their composition of virtually indestructible materials such as polyester, polypropylene, cotton, wood pulp, or rayon fibers.   Earlier this year, a report by Water UK – the membership body for water providers – also found that wipes are behind 93 per cent of blockages in UK sewers with 9.3m of them being flushed down toilets every single day.   While the problem has prompted campaign groups to lobby wipe manufacturers to include a logo on packets reminding people not to flush them, there are alternatives you can use which are less damaging to the environment.   If you can’t bear to part ways with a wipe, or need a quick fix for emergency situations, a number of brands now offer biodegradable and reusable alternatives that mean you can remove your makeup conveniently and with a conscience.   Wipes from brands such as Lancer, RMS, Botanics, Simple and Yes To are made from bio-cellulose fabrics, meaning they breakdown in months rather than years and don't contain any nasty pesticides.   Alternatively, reusable and washable makeup remover pads are now also widely available.   While cotton rounds can work wonders for your makeup routine, environmentally speaking, they are a disaster.   As well as being non-recyclable and non-degradable, it takes a ton of water to produce each single-use cotton pad, which, unless it’s made from organic cotton, is also grown with pesticides which damage the surrounding environment.     The solution is to invest in reusable versions made from soft bamboo, organic cotton or high-quality microfibre pads like the Face Halo – a dual-sided makeup remover which only requires water, is reusable up to 200 wash cycles and replaces the need for up to 500 makeup wipes.  

Swap aerosols for natural stick deodorants

  Whether you prefer to spritz your armpits with an aerosol or a roll-on, it is fair to assume that the majority of us use deodorant every day.   But just how damaging is the packaging used to contain these products which help keep us smelling fresh?   Typically, roll-on deodorants are packaged in two layers of plastic, meaning they are notoriously difficult to recycle.   Considering plastic can take 450 years to biodegrade and with millions of people using roll-ons everyday, the amount of plastic ending up in landfill from roll-ons alone is colossal.   In the same way, the UK uses around 600m aerosols each year, which is equivalent to approximately 10 cans per person.   While the good news is that aerosols are recyclable, the compressed gases that are used in them have a harmful impact on CO2 emissions.     According to a recent study by beauty manufacturer Unilever, if one million people switched their regular aerosol for a newer, compressed aerosol then 696 tonnes of CO2, and enough aluminium to make 20,000 bikes, could be saved.   So, what should you be using instead? Natural deodorants, which come with little or no packaging, are a great alternative as they help to keep odour at bay and have minimal impact on the world around us.   Their naturally self-preserving, aluminium-free formulas also mean you can be confident that the ingredients inside them will be kind to your body, as well as to the environment.   Nowadays, a crop of natural versions are hitting the shelves and even more surprisingly, they’re from some of the biggest names in the beauty business, including Malin + Goetz, Aesop, Cow Shed, L’Occitane and Neals Yard.     Investing in a natural deodorant also offers up an opportunity to explore a range of different formulas, from powders and creams to liquid pumps and crystal sticks.  

Refill, recycle and invest in naked products

  According to research carried out by Garnier and TerraCycle, only 50 per cent of bathroom packaging is recycled, compared to 90 per cent of kitchen packaging.   And, given that the global cosmetics industry produces 120bn units of packaging every year, that’s a lot of waste.   Luckily, there is some progress being made in the beauty world. Lush for example, have massively expanded their ‘Naked’ packaging-free selection of products which now makes up 50 per cent of their core range, including shower gels, moisturising bars and wax-covered lipstick refills that slot into reusable cases.   Between 2015 and 2016, the introduction of Lush’s naked shampoo bars meant that over 15m plastic bottles were never created. They’re also much more budget-friendly, with one bar lasting up to 80 washes, meaning it has the potential to outlive up to three regular bottles of shampoo.     A host of other brands are cropping up in response to growing demand for less packaging, with companies like L’Occitane and Rituals offering refill schemes and brands such as Origins, & Other Stories and Mac Cosmetics offering a reward system when customers return their empty plastic bottles.  

Swap plastic cotton buds for bamboo versions

  In England alone, it is estimated that we use 1.8bn plastic-stemmed cotton buds every year, according to government figures.   What’s more, an estimated 10 per cent of these cotton buds are flushed down toilets.   Plastic cotton buds are just one of the thousands of sanitary products being improperly disposed of that has resulted in the pollution of waterways and the marine environment, but the difference here is that they pose a threat to wildlife too.   According to the Cotton Bud Project, between 2015 and 2018 cotton buds were in the top 10 items found during the Marine Conservation Society’s Great British Beach Clean. During 2018, 22 cotton buds were found for every 100 meters of UK beach surveyed.     A cotton buds long thin shape can pierce the internal organs of marine animals that may accidentally ingest them, and plastic stems regularly turn up in the stomachs of seabirds.   While it should go without saying not to flush cotton buds, you also have the option to replace your plastic versions entirely with stems made of bamboo, such as those from Hydrophil.   Whereas plastic cotton swabs are discarded after seconds of use but live on for years as a pollutant, these versions can simply be thrown in your organic waste or compost bin. What’s more, they also come in recycled cardboard packaging, further reducing plastic waste.   In May 2019, the environment secretary Michael Gove confirmed that cotton buds are to be banned in England from April 2020 after an open consultation revealed “overwhelming” public support for the move.  

Boycott brands that use too much plastic

  As the beauty industry continues to grapple with a plastics problem, many companies have started working towards creating products that include more sustainable packing and ingredients.   However, some are doing better than others.   Of course, what constitutes improvement is an area of contention, but whether it's using biodegradable packaging or harvesting ingredients in a way that's kinder to the environment, there are plenty of brands that are shaking things up.     According to Mintel’s Natural, Organic and Ethical Toiletries report, more than 60 per cent of consumers said they would stop using a brand if they found it to have “unethical practices”.   Similarly, protecting the environment, recyclable packaging and animal welfare were all listed as top issues by consumers, while 43 per cent of those surveyed said they would consider a brand’s stance before buying for the first time.   But, what brands are really making a difference?   As well as the brands this article has already touched upon, consumers can be shop sustainably at a host of makeup and skincare companies, including Disciple, which sells products in glass bottles and uses sustainably sourced essential oils, BYBI Beauty, which used packaging made from biodegradable sugar cane or glass and sells products that are 100 per cent natural, vegan and cruelty-free, and BECo, which sells biodegradable bar-soap boxes, bottles made from recycled materials and products using cruelty-free and vegan ingredients.

As consumers become increasingly aware of the pollution and waste caused by single-use products, items like plastic straws, water bottles and disposable coffee cups have become maligned. But what about our beauty routines?   A quick glance in your bathroom cabinet or makeup bag is sure to throw up a whole host of products, which are single-use, packaged in plastic, and just as likely to end up in landfill.   It is estimated that there is more than 150m tonnes of plastic waste polluting the world’s oceans with an additional 13m tonnes being dumped each year.   Scientists estimate by 2050 there could be more plastic, by weight, than fish in our seas. The government is taking steps to improve this: introducing a manufacturing ban on microbeads – tiny balls of plastic used in body scrubs, toothpaste and facial exfoliators – in 2018. But there is more to do.   So how can you make your beauty routine more sustainable in 2020? The Independent rounds up five simple beauty resolutions you can make this year to help you become a more conscientious consumer.   Ditch cotton pads and face wipes for reusable and biodegradable versions   Removing your makeup is arguably one of the most time consuming and, let’s face it, annoying parts of a beauty routine.   When you get home from a long day at work or a heavy night out, the last thing you want to do is perform a full-on skincare routine. In this scenario, many of us turn to face wipes, which boast the ability to remove makeup and partially cleanse our faces in seconds.       But while they might be insanely convenient, the damage face wipes are inflicting on the environment is vast.   According to research group Mintel, 47 per cent of people in the UK regularly use face wipes, which take years to breakdown in landfills due to their composition of virtually indestructible materials such as polyester, polypropylene, cotton, wood pulp, or rayon fibers.   Earlier this year, a report by Water UK – the membership body for water providers – also found that wipes are behind 93 per cent of blockages in UK sewers with 9.3m of them being flushed down toilets every single day.   While the problem has prompted campaign groups to lobby wipe manufacturers to include a logo on packets reminding people not to flush them, there are alternatives you can use which are less damaging to the environment.   If you can’t bear to part ways with a wipe, or need a quick fix for emergency situations, a number of brands now offer biodegradable and reusable alternatives that mean you can remove your makeup conveniently and with a conscience.   Wipes from brands such as Lancer, RMS, Botanics, Simple and Yes To are made from bio-cellulose fabrics, meaning they breakdown in months rather than years and don't contain any nasty pesticides.   Alternatively, reusable and washable makeup remover pads are now also widely available.   While cotton rounds can work wonders for your makeup routine, environmentally speaking, they are a disaster.   As well as being non-recyclable and non-degradable, it takes a ton of water to produce each single-use cotton pad, which, unless it’s made from organic cotton, is also grown with pesticides which damage the surrounding environment.       The solution is to invest in reusable versions made from soft bamboo, organic cotton or high-quality microfibre pads like the Face Halo – a dual-sided makeup remover which only requires water, is reusable up to 200 wash cycles and replaces the need for up to 500 makeup wipes.  

Swap aerosols for natural stick deodorants

  Whether you prefer to spritz your armpits with an aerosol or a roll-on, it is fair to assume that the majority of us use deodorant every day.   But just how damaging is the packaging used to contain these products which help keep us smelling fresh?   Typically, roll-on deodorants are packaged in two layers of plastic, meaning they are notoriously difficult to recycle.   Considering plastic can take 450 years to biodegrade and with millions of people using roll-ons everyday, the amount of plastic ending up in landfill from roll-ons alone is colossal.   In the same way, the UK uses around 600m aerosols each year, which is equivalent to approximately 10 cans per person.   While the good news is that aerosols are recyclable, the compressed gases that are used in them have a harmful impact on CO2 emissions.       According to a recent study by beauty manufacturer Unilever, if one million people switched their regular aerosol for a newer, compressed aerosol then 696 tonnes of CO2, and enough aluminium to make 20,000 bikes, could be saved.   So, what should you be using instead? Natural deodorants, which come with little or no packaging, are a great alternative as they help to keep odour at bay and have minimal impact on the world around us.   Their naturally self-preserving, aluminium-free formulas also mean you can be confident that the ingredients inside them will be kind to your body, as well as to the environment.   Nowadays, a crop of natural versions are hitting the shelves and even more surprisingly, they’re from some of the biggest names in the beauty business, including Malin + Goetz, Aesop, Cow Shed, L’Occitane and Neals Yard.       Investing in a natural deodorant also offers up an opportunity to explore a range of different formulas, from powders and creams to liquid pumps and crystal sticks.  

Refill, recycle and invest in naked products

  According to research carried out by Garnier and TerraCycle, only 50 per cent of bathroom packaging is recycled, compared to 90 per cent of kitchen packaging.   And, given that the global cosmetics industry produces 120bn units of packaging every year, that’s a lot of waste.   Luckily, there is some progress being made in the beauty world. Lush for example, have massively expanded their ‘Naked’ packaging-free selection of products which now makes up 50 per cent of their core range, including shower gels, moisturising bars and wax-covered lipstick refills that slot into reusable cases.   Between 2015 and 2016, the introduction of Lush’s naked shampoo bars meant that over 15m plastic bottles were never created. They’re also much more budget-friendly, with one bar lasting up to 80 washes, meaning it has the potential to outlive up to three regular bottles of shampoo.       A host of other brands are cropping up in response to growing demand for less packaging, with companies like L’Occitane and Rituals offering refill schemes and brands such as Origins, & Other Stories and Mac Cosmetics offering a reward system when customers return their empty plastic bottles.  

Swap plastic cotton buds for bamboo versions

  In England alone, it is estimated that we use 1.8bn plastic-stemmed cotton buds every year, according to government figures.   What’s more, an estimated 10 per cent of these cotton buds are flushed down toilets.   Plastic cotton buds are just one of the thousands of sanitary products being improperly disposed of that has resulted in the pollution of waterways and the marine environment, but the difference here is that they pose a threat to wildlife too.   According to the Cotton Bud Project, between 2015 and 2018 cotton buds were in the top 10 items found during the Marine Conservation Society’s Great British Beach Clean. During 2018, 22 cotton buds were found for every 100 meters of UK beach surveyed.       A cotton buds long thin shape can pierce the internal organs of marine animals that may accidentally ingest them, and plastic stems regularly turn up in the stomachs of seabirds.   While it should go without saying not to flush cotton buds, you also have the option to replace your plastic versions entirely with stems made of bamboo, such as those from Hydrophil.   Whereas plastic cotton swabs are discarded after seconds of use but live on for years as a pollutant, these versions can simply be thrown in your organic waste or compost bin. What’s more, they also come in recycled cardboard packaging, further reducing plastic waste.   In May 2019, the environment secretary Michael Gove confirmed that cotton buds are to be banned in England from April 2020 after an open consultation revealed “overwhelming” public support for the move.  

Boycott brands that use too much plastic

  As the beauty industry continues to grapple with a plastics problem, many companies have started working towards creating products that include more sustainable packing and ingredients.   However, some are doing better than others.   Of course, what constitutes improvement is an area of contention, but whether it's using biodegradable packaging or harvesting ingredients in a way that's kinder to the environment, there are plenty of brands that are shaking things up.       According to Mintel’s Natural, Organic and Ethical Toiletries report, more than 60 per cent of consumers said they would stop using a brand if they found it to have “unethical practices”.   Similarly, protecting the environment, recyclable packaging and animal welfare were all listed as top issues by consumers, while 43 per cent of those surveyed said they would consider a brand’s stance before buying for the first time.   But, what brands are really making a difference?   As well as the brands this article has already touched upon, consumers can be shop sustainably at a host of makeup and skincare companies, including Disciple, which sells products in glass bottles and uses sustainably sourced essential oils, BYBI Beauty, which used packaging made from biodegradable sugar cane or glass and sells products that are 100 per cent natural, vegan and cruelty-free, and BECo, which sells biodegradable bar-soap boxes, bottles made from recycled materials and products using cruelty-free and vegan ingredients.

Lately you may have seen the words zero waste on your body lotion (and if that’s the case, we applaud you). It’s a growing trend within the beauty industry, and as someone who has spent the better part of a decade reporting on such matters, it’s the trend I am most excited about.   To get a better understanding of what this term actually means, I spoke to Tiila Abbitt, the CEO and founder of Aether Beauty, a sustainable makeup company that launched the first zero-waste eye shadow palette in the makeup industry.   "Zero waste means making sure nothing ends up in a landfill," explains Abbitt. "That can mean a few things: One is that a product is reusable, another is that it can actually be recycled." (I’m going to interrupt here briefly to drop in that oft-quoted National Geographic stat about how 91% of plastic ends up in landfills.) "And on that note, it’s making sure there is no packaging or packaging waste. The main idea is to limit what actually goes directly in your trash."   She concedes that "this idea can be intimidating because people think they have to completely switch up their entire lifestyle," but this isn’t about perfection. "We don’t need a few people creating a zero-waste lifestyle perfectly. We need millions of people trying their best, thinking more about their own footprint and making better choices with the goods they are purchasing, however imperfectly, to make a difference." In sum, it’s not an all-or-nothing affair.   So, how do we do this? "Look for products that have less waste, are package-free or are fully recyclable. And avoid single-use items like face wipes and cotton rounds," shares Abbitt. We’re also fans of Garnier’s partnership with TerraCycle, which processes plastic for you and turns it into earrings and benches and more, and brands like M.A.C and Lush that offer new products in exchange for empties. And beyond carefully choosing your beauty products, start bringing reusable items like shopping bags, coffee mugs and water bottles, utensils and metal straws with you for when you are out and about. OK, now who’s ready to shop some of our favorite sustainable beauty products?                      

The beauty maker has been hosting a global innovation competition for university students for over 25 years. The 2020 challenge got underway this month and the task at hand is to help create a plastic-free future.

The Procter & Gamble-owned personal care brand has joined forces with the waste management company TerraCycle on an initiative that will see all of its brands of disposable razors and replaceable-blade cartridge units made recyclable across Canada. The concept also extends to plastic packaging used for its razor products. Consumers will be able to recycle their razors via the Gillette Razor Recycling Program, which allows them to download a shipping label and send their goods off to TerraCycle. Gillette is also offering businesses, gyms, colleges, cities and community organizations across the country the chance to become drop-off points: participating groups will be sent a special recycling bin that is returned to TerraCycle via UPS once full, and replaced with a new one. "We are very excited about our partnership with TerraCycle to offer recycling for Gillette, Venus or any razor brand across Canada," said Gillette Canada Leader Jennifer Seiler in a statement. "This is an important first step towards sustainable solutions for shaving products and the start of an exciting journey with Gillette and TerraCycle." TerraCycle has been working with multiple major beauty companies over the past few years to provide waste solutions for plastic packaging. Earlier this year, it partnered with Procter & Gamble-owned brand Herbal Essences to launch a series of bottles comprising 25% beach plastic, in addition to teaming up with the British label REN Clean Skincare on a new bottle containing 20% plastic recovered from oceans, beaches, rivers and lakes. It has also been working alongside the L'Oréal USA-owned brand Garnier since 2011 to raise awareness of the importance of responsible recycling.  

THIS IS A TRUE STORY. It is 1998, I am at a production of Cabaret at Studio 54, and Madonna is at the next table. At some point during the show, she whips out a mirror to check her hair—I think it is braided—and I am close enough to see that she is holding a dull silver T. LeClerc Poudre compact, an item I have long coveted for its chic, Paris between-the-wars aura, but that I am too thrifty, too bohemian to break down and purchase. Suddenly a surge of lust and desire sweeps through me—this fairy dust should not merely reside in a rock star’s palm! As soon as the show ends, I run out and buy it, and I have been swearing by it ever since.   Which means that over the past 21 years I have bought—and discarded—roughly 100 of these things, which is something that until now, I am ashamed to say, I haven’t given much thought. I know that the planet is boiling, we are being buried alive by an avalanche of plastic, the polar ice cap is melting—things are really dire! But alter my beauty routine, the carefully culled roster of products that has worked so hard for me over the decades, and make a “clean” break from my faithful friends? Kill me now! After all, when it comes to cosmetics, who can deny the magical melding of efficacy and presentation they offer—the promise that lies inside those seductive boxes, those elegant bottles so charming on a boudoir shelf?   Still, even selfish me is taken aback by the stark statistics. According to Euromonitor International, a staggering 152.1 billion units of beauty and personal-care packaging was sold globally in 2018, and very little of the resulting waste, including plastic items, will actually be recycled for a number of reasons, which include variations on access to recycling programs, and a lack of uniform recycling procedures that can lead to sorting confusion among consumers. So they end up in landfills, or burned, or they find their way into oceans and waterways. Worst of all, most of these items are actually designed to be disposable, destined to fester atop a repulsive mountain of refuse.   Big beauty is finally meeting the crisis head-on, and it’s about time. L’Oréal says that by next year, 100 percent of its products will have an improved environmental or social profile, including updated formulations that incorporate renewable raw materials that are sustainably sourced or derived from green chemistry; not to be outdone, the Estée Lauder Companies has pledged that by 2025, 75 to 100 percent of their packaging will be recyclable, refillable, reusable, or recoverable. And as a founding company of TerraCycle’s ambitious new Loop initiative—an environmentally friendly shopping platform being piloted in select states that includes eight of Procter & Gamble’s household brands—P&G says that their offerings, which range from Pantene to Tide, can now be dropped off and picked up from your home in 100 percent refillable and recyclable and/or reusable packages, with the click of a button. If these corporate behemoths can be the change, why can’t I take a few baby steps in the right direction?   With this in mind, I assemble a collection of products, all vying for the winning ticket in my ethical/sustainable sweepstakes. Like you, I have tried really expensive shampoos over the years—because if it costs more it must be better, right? —but I always return to Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, which I am delighted to learn is now part of a new How2Recycle initiative that aims to overcome the challenges around proper recycling with clear, specific, and standardized labeling. (Who knew?) But in the interest of science, I investigate a trio of other contenders. First up is California Baby Calendula Shampoo & Body Wash, which features a cartoon smiley face on the bottle. The Los Angeles–based company that uses a solar-powered production facility and sustainably grown, certified-organic calendula from its own farm in Santa Barbara County is so cutting edge, it even funnels condensation from air-conditioning and rainwater off the roof of its headquarters into barrels for landscaping. The next contestant is L’Oréal Professional Source Essentielle shampoo, which has a lovely beachy smell, flaunts a vegan, silicone-, paraben-, and sulfate-free formula, and arrives in a stylish cube that is refillable up to three times. (A quick visit to its website reveals a list of participating salon refill stations nationwide.) The third entrant is a murumuru butter–and–rose shampoo “bar”—no plastic in the packaging!—from Love Beauty and Planet. It is a heart-shaped cake of soap and thus unlike any shampoo I have ever used. Though it doesn’t lather up very much (maybe that’s better for the planet?), its sentimental shape and rosy aroma look—and smell—like it belongs in a 1950s country cottage. (Not a bad thing.)   All three of these perform perfectly well, but in truth it is difficult for me to judge, since before I blow-dry my hair, I always coat it with an iron-clad gel, superstrong enough to turn my wavy-not-in-a-cute-way tresses into a semblance of the stick-straight bob I crave. The 98 percent–naturally derived Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Styling Gel, a very pleasant product with a TerraCycle partnership (you send in your empty tube; they repurpose it to make new recyclable products), is not up to the task, nor is the 100 percent–vegan Yarok Feed Your Hold Hair Spray able to conquer my limp locks. So I hightail it back to my reliable göt2b Ultra Glued Invincible Styling Gel, which is so tough it boasts a picture of a scary guy with a mohawk on the box.   The next morning, I scrub myself with Ren Clean Skincare Atlantic Kelp and Magnesium Anti-Fatigue Body Wash—the bottle is made from 100 percent–recycled plastic, 20 percent of which is culled from the ocean—but is this really waking me up, or is the shower just doing its thing? Then I give Vapour Soft Focus Foundation a spin. The Taos-based company has a serious commitment to renewable energy and a goal of using 100 percent Day Light Solar by 2022 at its headquarters and production facility, and—nice surprise!—I love this and would gladly use it when this research project ends. For the trademark dots on my cheeks, meant to make me look like a cross between a Victorian doll and a 1920s flapper, I have—editorial secret—long relied on mere lipstick, and Guerlain Rouge G in Deep Plum is sustainable because its tube is refillable. Not only does it look like a tiny chrome cocktail shaker, it is quite capable of giving me an unnatural blush. But just when it seems like it will be easy for me to do my part in saving the planet, there is trouble brewing for my lips. Admittedly, not everyone wants to look as if she has just bitten into a poison apple—but I need a lip pencil so dark, it’s almost black and capable of creating the upper-lip points my Cupid’s bow depends on. I try the darkest shades from both Dr. Hauschka (the antibacterial witch hazel in their liners is grown in their own herb garden!) and 100 percent Pure (their pigments come from fruit, vegetables, and tea! They even print their recyclable boxes with nontoxic soy ink at their 100 percent–solar-powered San Jose production facility!). Alas, they both are very pretty but too gentle, too sweet, for my kisser, and I am forced to return to my beloved MAC Cosmetics Nightmoth, which—just saying—is made of wood, not plastic.   Now for the most fraught part of the experiment: Will I be able to relinquish my precious T. LeClerc compact, even for a day? If I can bear the thought of it, there are refillable alternatives that include a delightfully petite Golden Alligator Slim Compact from Estée Lauder, so chic it could nestle cheerfully in a golden alligator Birkin. Or I might consider Antonym Cosmetics, which claims that their products contain 98 percent (or higher) natural ingredients; the packaging is made from what I think is wood (sustainable!) but turns out to be bamboo (even more sustainable!). If I ever decide I want to channel Stevie Nicks instead of Sally Bowles, Antonym is the powder for me.   In the end, even if I am not ready to abandon my T. LeClerc anytime soon (I wonder if Madonna is still using it?), it is nice to know that there are plenty of laudable goods out there, striving to help us look beautiful while at least attempting to keep the Earth beautiful, too. And I guess that’s really the heart of the matter: We want products to make us feel cool and gorgeous and transform us into the person we always wanted to be—a fantasy version of ourselves, no less powerful for being so elusive. And if these powders and potions, these shampoos and sprays can also do no harm—and guide us toward a saner, smarter future—won’t they literally become the sustainable stuff that dreams are made of?

These zero-wasters have ditched the trash can almost entirely. Pick and choose from their tips for going zero waste to shrink your own waste (plus any eco-guilt).   These days, knowing how to recycle isn’t enough. Zero waste is the sustainability method of the moment, and it’s not just a passing fad: Living with less is one way of preserving the environment and already-dwindling resources, and going zero waste is actually almost (dare we say it) easy.   There’s a lot of garbage out there. The United States sent 137.7 million tons of trash to landfills in 2015, according to the Environmental Protection Agency—and a recent report found we’re on track to run out of space in landfills within the next two decades. China is importing fewer of the recyclable plastics we’ve been sending there. And far too many items don’t make it to landfills or recycling plants in the first place: Think of all the litter along our roads and the sad stories about sea turtles with straws in their nostrils and whales with bags in their bellies.   In some ways, this problem is bigger than any one person. To make a real dent, we’d need our legislators to support more plastic bans, regulate wasteful industries, and be more aggressive about protecting the planet beyond the waste problem. Still, our actions do make a difference. The more consumers and voters start caring about waste reduction in their day-to-day lives, experts say, the more businesses and governments will make it a priority.   “The best thing we can do, environmentally speaking, is not produce waste in the first place,” says Jenna Jambeck, PhD, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia and a National Geographic fellow specializing in solid waste. “I’ve been totally convinced by my research that, taken collectively, small choices make a difference. These choices, even if we aren’t perfect, add up to significant positive impacts over time.”   These choices include everything from utilizing zero waste disposal options to adopting a zero waste lifestyle—making decisions large and small that move the needle in the right direction, even a little. You’ll see the impact in your life too: less clutter, money saved, new peace of mind. You don’t have to take every step experts suggest here—do what works for you, and you just might find life is better with less garbage in it.   Start with these tips for going zero waste, straight from practiced zero-wasters—including the mind behind Zero Waste Home—and you’ll be off to a great start. You may even find yourself surprised by how easy using less can be.  

Use what you already have.

  “I don’t encourage anyone to go out and buy things, like a pretty stainless-steel water bottle or organic-cotton shopping bag, in order to go zero-waste,” says Tippi Thole, founder of the zero-waste website Tiny Trash Can. “We should be buying less, not more! If I have a plastic item in good working condition, I use it as long as I can.” Manufacturing reusable tote bags and water bottles tends to use a lot more resources and energy than manufacturing the disposable versions, so don’t churn through them.  

Refuse first.

  People are constantly trying to give you single-use stuff: a flyer on the street, a sample in the store, a bag of stickers and knickknacks at a birthday party. “No matter how much you reduce, reuse, and recycle, you’re still the target of many items,” says Bea Johnson, author of Zero Waste Home ($11; amazon.com), who says her family of four creates only a pint of garbage per year. “Say no on the spot to stop it from becoming your trash problem down the line.”  

Rearrange the trash.

  Moving the kitchen trash can somewhere inconvenient, like the garage, forces everyone in the house to consider whether items could be composted or recycled instead. “Just by rearranging the bins and shocking everyone out of the habit of tossing something into the can, we halved the amount of garbage we produced,” says Larkin Gayl, who shares zero-waste tips on Instagram at @unfetteredhome.  

Pack reusable necessities.

  Think about the single-use items you pick up most in the outside world (coffee cups? utensils? to-go boxes? straws?) and stash a reusable version in your bag or car so you always have it with you. “We even carry a growler in our car for beer emergencies!” says zero-waster Sarah Schade, an art and design student in Traverse City, Michigan. When you come home, remember to wash your reusables and put them back so they’re ready to go the next day.  

Borrow before buying.

  You borrow books—why not borrow a weed whacker, stand mixer, or circle saw too? Borrowing things like tools and kitchen gadgets saves you from shelling out for something you’ll only use a few times a year. Plus, Lepeltier adds, “connecting with neighbors when you borrow something makes in-life connections and creates community.” Searchmyturn.com and buynothingproject.org/find-a-group, or write a post on Nextdoor. You can also rent tools from many hardware stores and Home Depot locations.  

Do a trash audit.

  It might sound icky, but poke through your garbage can to find your household’s worst waste offenders. (Or just make a note—and ask those you live with to do the same—of what you toss in a typical week.) “Pick the thing that shows up most in the garbage and find a swap for it,” says Gayl. For example, she noticed a ton of granola bar wrappers in her trash and started making batches of grab-and-go snacks instead.  

Don’t feel like you have to make everything yourself.

  “I’ve experimented with sourdough and making kombucha, but I’m not running a Whole Foods at my home,” says Chloé Lepeltier, who blogs about her low-impact lifestyle on the site Conscious By Chloé. The idea is to find habits you can sustain, so only DIY if you enjoy it.  

Green your period.

  If you’re up for it, Schade endorses switching to a reusable menstrual cup. Made out of silicone, it typically lasts a year, replacing the 240 or so tampons you might use during that time. (It also keeps packaging, applicators, and sometimes agrochemical-intensive cotton out of the trash.) Or consider period underwear like the ones from Thinx or Dear Kate—they may not eliminate your need for tampons entirely, but you’ll cut back in a big way.  

Raise tiny tree huggers.

  “Kids are often the best place to start in your waste-reduction journey because they tend to be more sensitive to the problem and don’t have the bad habits we adults do,” says Thole. Ask children to help cook (and therefore eat less food packaged in plastic); fill up at the bulk bins together; and talk about the materials that go into making a plastic toy—and the landfill the toy will end up in. But be warned: Soon enough, they may call out your eco-blunders.  

Invest in a TerraCycle bin.

  The company TerraCycle accepts many items that can’t always be recycled locally, like coffee capsules, toothpaste tubes, and potato chip bags. It partners with brands—including Arm & Hammer, Brita, Garnier, Honest Kids, even Solo cups—to offer free recycling of their products. Or you can buy a bin or pouch for a specific need. It’s pricey (pouches cost $42 and up), but that’s a deterrent to creating trash, says Gayl: “The cost to recycle motivates me to think before I purchase.”

If you walk down any drugstore aisle, you become quickly aware of how plastic packaging enwraps most of the cosmetics and personal care products we use daily. Estimates of the cosmetics industry’s annual plastic packaging production range between 76.8 billion and 150 billion units.

Plastic packaging became the norm for the cosmetics industry starting in the 1950s due to its versatility in shape and size, as well as cultural shifts in the U.S. around hygiene and beauty that emerged during World War II. As showers became standard in Americans’ morning routines, so did the demand for liquid personal care products that could wash easily down the drain.

However, ongoing public outcry across the globe about plastics in oceans has encouraged cosmetics brands to rethink plastics and develop more responsible packaging. Notable cosmetic companies tackling the plastic packaging problem are L’Oréal and Garnier. For example, Garnier has teamed up with TerraCycle—a recycling and “upcycling” company that says it is determined to “eliminate the idea of waste”—to offer a take-back program for specific Garnier beauty products. L’Oréal signed with PureCycle Technologies, a company that uses waste plastic to produce virgin-like plastic, to get closer to its 2025 goal for 50 percent of its packaging plastics to be bio-sourced or of recycled origin.

While the work of Garnier and L’Oréal is a step in the right direction, their solutions do not remove plastic from the packaging equation entirely, nor do they remove the emissions from transportation further down the value chain.

'Carbon positive’ packaging: Sailing ships and regenerative forestry

Lush—a United Kingdom cosmetics company that boasts a line of package-free products—has developed what it calls a "carbon positive" packaging process that removes additional carbon dioxide from the air. The process does not use plastic packaging or container ships and results in what will encase some of Lush’s shampoo bars.

The packaging process is considered carbon-positive because it uses commercial sailboats instead of cargo ships to ship finished cork containers from Portugal to the United Kingdom. Lush also sources the cork at premium prices from forest owners who grow cork oak regeneratively.

“The [Lush] team’s calculations suggest that each cork pot sequesters over one kilo of carbon dioxide gas (and this is a very conservative estimate),” Miles King, a nature writer who works with Lush, told the Telegraph.

A revenue stream encouraging regenerative cork forests in Portugal

It is through Lush’s buying partnership with Eco Interventions, a nonprofit that works to restore Portugal’s Cork Oak forests, that regenerative practices have returned to the Portuguese cork industry. In recent years, forest owners’ ambitions to produce more cork have had a negative effect on the cork oaks’ well-being. Monte De Vida details how there has been a widespread die-off of cork oaks in Portugal due to a fungal disease and Portuguese cork harvesters’ excessive cultivation of land, which damages the shallow cork oaks’ roots and degrades the soil.

The 5 euros that Lush pays to Eco Interventions for each cork pot helps provide forest owners with the resources to cultivate native plants to replant around the trees and to transition away from pesticide usage. The 5 euros per container could quickly add up to bring meaningful change to the Portugal cork forest landscape, as Lush says it plans to purchase 500,000 cork containers by the end of the year.

Lush launches program that ships cork by sail

Lush also brought the regenerative philosophy of cork harvesting to the transportation portion of its “carbon positive” packaging process. The company launched a trial to ship 6,000 cork containers via a commercial sailing ship from Portugal to the United Kingdom at the beginning of July 2019.

“Transporting goods by sail cargo is a good fit with our ethics and ambition to reduce harm to the planet as it’s largely carbon neutral,” Derek Hallé, trade compliance manager for Lush U.K., told Fast Company.

At the same time, Lush is aware of the challenges of shipping by sailboat, such as the longer shipping time and lack of infrastructure that could increase costs drastically. It is important to Lush that acting ethically doesn’t get in the way of profitability, as it is essential in scaling up solutions such as shipping by sailboats. While shipping the containers by sail for now is unique to the cosmetics industry, entrepreneurs and academics believe the benefits of shipping cargo by sail will outweigh the challenges in the long run, according to Jeff Spross of The Week.

This process is a reminder that sustainable packaging requires a system reset—one that dares to redefine traditional logistics that make up not only the global cosmetics industry but also most other industries. Since 90 percent of what the global economy buys comes from container ships (which account for 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions) and 6.3 billion tons of plastic have found refuge in our oceans, more companies need to act on innovative transportation and material solutions similar to Lush’s process to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The more companies that try to reinvent their logistics with the environment in mind, the closer our global society is to finding regenerative solutions that can work in the long term.