When I made the leap from the fashion industry to the beauty industry, I was so excited to finally be in a space where individuality is celebrated rather than shunned. (Not a size 2 millionaire? Fashion thinks you should be!) When it comes to beauty, you have permission to play, create and experiment no matter your age, race or gender. This spoke to me.
Plus, it’s just so damn fun. I finally mastered the art of no-makeup makeup, learned how to appropriately layer my skin-care products and even learned the tricks to humidity-resistant pin-straight locks in August. (
Color Wow Dream Coat Supernatural Spray, for all you sleek hair devotees.)
But none of those things are as valuable as my biggest takeaway: Just how wasteful the beauty industry is.
See, being a beauty editor means testing new products. But that also means trying a lipstick or mascara once, realizing it’s not your thing and then having a basically unused plastic-encased product that you can’t give to anyone else (because germs) and you can’t recycle (because the product is still very much in there). I can barely open the door to our beauty closet in the office, because it’s jam-packed with samples, and you’d be hard-pressed to find any other publication or media company that doesn’t have the same issue. I know, I know. “You have so much eye shadow; cry me a river.” But this excess and waste is literally keeping me up at night.
How bad is it? Well,
National Geographic reported that of the 6.9 billion tons of plastic generated in 2015, only around 9 percent was recycled, while a staggering 79 percent accumulated in landfills, the ocean or the environment. And that was four years ago.
Of course the beauty industry isn’t the only offender, but the numbers are pretty scary.
Stylist reports that 120 billion units of packaging are produced every year by the global cosmetics industry, most of which isn’t recyclable, or we’re just not recycling it, period. Then there are actual products
made of plastics, like makeup remover wipes, which are created with non-biodegradable plastic fibers. The World Wildlife Fund stated that in 2018 alone, the UK was projected to make its way through 10.8 billion wet wipes and 13.2 billion cotton swabs—and the U.S. accounts for millions more of each. It’s becoming such a problem that an excess of these items in sewer systems are creating “
fatbergs” that block passageways and ultimately result in waste resurfacing in unpleasant places, like our own homes. Gross.
Luckily, some brands are taking a stand. While many are turning to organic, sustainably farmed ingredients and (mostly) plastic-free packaging, like
Tata Harper,
Farmaesthetics,
RMS Beauty and
Lush (which offers 35 percent of its products without
any packaging, BTW), others like
Kjaer Weis have created aesthetically pleasing refillable packaging to cut down on waste all together. There are also beauty product recycling programs like
Terracycle, through which you can donate stuff like plastic shampoo bottles and caps, lip gloss tubes, hair spray cans and more to be cleaned, sorted and distilled into plastic pellets to make new recycled products.
Overwhelming? Yes. But better than blindly dumping into landfills? You betcha. By making conscious purchasing decisions, we can all help to reduce our footprint. I, for one, have started recycling every single item that I can and choosing glass-packaged products over plastics. (It doesn’t hurt that they look pretty on my vanity.) I’ve also switched exclusively to makeup that is packaged in recycled and recyclable materials. And you know what? It wasn’t even that hard to do.
Don’t know where to start? Here are some responsibly packaged beauty products we love.
Loop's new recycling program hopes to eliminate waste altogether.TERRACYCLE
Some of the biggest consumer brands are trying out a new way to repurpose packaging. It’s a modern take on an old school model: think of milkmen picking up used milk bottles or recycling glass bottle to get the deposit back.
Last week at Davos, TerraCycle, a US-based waste management company, debuted a new model of recycling, called the Loop, working with global brands like Unilever, P&G, The Clorox Company, Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca Cola European Partners, Danone, and The Body Shop.
It does just as the name suggests: keep “looping” the packaging back to the brand for a refill, instead of throwing it in the bin after just one use. This could be the beginnings of an e-commerce circular shopping system.
Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever, said: “We want to put an end to the current ‘take-make-dispose’ culture and are committed to taking big steps towards designing our products for re-use. We’re proud to be a founding partner of Loop, which will deliver our much-loved brands in packaging which is truly circular by design.”
TerraCycle has been on the business of trash for a decade, recycling waste, and helping brands figure out more eco-friendly alternatives. Despite their successes, Loop required reimagining the current system altogether.
“It took quite a bit of effort to get the founding partners on board: PG, Unilever, Nestle, Mars and PepsiCo as the model requires a major investment of money, time and other resources,” says Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle. “Once these companies joined they set the stage and since then it has been surprisingly easy to bring partners on board.”
Reusable containers with glass and metal would substitute cheap disposable packaging.TERRACYCLE
He admits that it’s more complicated and costly option right now for brands. But at scale, the cost can drop. Same applies for retail partners like Carrefour and Tesco who were first hesitant to sign, but have been easier to convict after Carrefour pioneered the way, being the first grocery retailer to test out Loop.
Laurent Vallée, General Secretary of Carrefour Group, said: “Loop is a disruptive solution led by a visionary entrepreneur. Carrefour has a strong commitment to eliminating waste and plastic. It was a natural fit for Carrefour to commit to this great project, thus becoming the first player in the retail space to join Loop. We believe our clients are increasingly concerned with unnecessary waste and we expect them to embrace this new solution. We hope other international manufacturers and retailers will join us to adopt new standards and fight waste.”
For customers, the prices for Loop products will be comparable to what they would be normally in disposable packaging. However, customers do have to pay a refundable deposit for the durable containers. In the US, this will vary from $0.25 to $10. This is fully refunded when the empty packaging is picked up, no matter what condition it is returned in, Szaky clarifies.
Rather than build a new brand centered around packaging, Loop wants companies and consumers to pay closer attention to the economics of packaging: the current model incentives the cheapest options. Since compostable packaging is still more expensive, big global brands have been slow to adopt.
“The good news is that in Loop you don’t have to trust our products, as they are already the best brands in the world from Tide to Haagen Dazs, and you don’t have to trust us as a retailer. All you have to do is switch from disposable to durable, which gives you the following profound benefits,” he adds.
With some of this new packaging, there may be some added bonuses: for instance, the metal containers keep ice cream frozen longer and wet wipes, well, wetter. Plus, there’s the obvious bonus of less trash to take out every week. By working with UPS and Suez, TerraCycle can use the same routes UPS does daily to deliver packages to pick up the waste. So no drops to recycling units or additional steps for customers.
The idea was conceived at the World Economic Forum; hence it’s debut there this year. Szaky used the convening of these global brands at this annual event to design the system.
To expand on this vision, Szaky has been raising capital through crowdfunding: over $3 million have been raised thus far. Szaky says they’re also raising capital specifically for Loop, which is owned by TerraCycle Global, and requires a fair amount of capital upfront for brands to innovative new types of packaging and a process of refillng.
The pilots with these global brands will unravel this spring and it’s yet to be determined if customers are as eager as brands to solve the waste problem.