Did you know that the global cosmetics industry produces 120 billion units of packaging every year? These 120 billion units contribute to the loss of 18 million acres of forest every single year, according to research conducted by Zero Waste Week and published on the Stylist. Yep, I was devastated to learn this, too. As a beauty editor who tests and receives tons of products on a weekly basis, I’m often left feeling disheartened by how much plastic and waste is used in the packaging. That’s why whenever I hit pan on my favorite bronzer or finish my clarifying shampoo, I make it a point to recycle the leftovers in the appropriate bins — or at least what I thought were the appropriate bins. As it turns out, recycling cosmetic packaging correctly involves more research and information than I thought.

 

To find out how to recycle my beauty products the right way,  I reached out to Alex Payne, a publicist for TerraCycle —- a recycling program that offers a sustainable solution for those hard-to-recycle items. Read on for his top tips.

 

Tip #1: Get Informed

“In general, plastic pollution is a main driver of the negative environmental consequences that result from not recycling otherwise recyclable products,” says Payne. While it may be easier to throw away your empty lipstick bullet in any old trash bag, not disposing of it the right way can have a lasting, negative impact on the planet.

 

Tip #2: Learn About Your City’s Recycling Regulations

Did you know that recycling restrictions vary by city? Generally, items made from glass, aluminum and basic #1 and #2 plastic (things like single-use water bottles and milk jugs) are accepted by most local programs. Unfortunately, Payne explains that many modern forms of beauty packaging contain complex materials that cannot be separated or processed by most municipal recycling centers. “A simple way to check your beauty product’s recyclability is to look up your town’s accepted waste via the database offered by Call2Recycle,” he says.

 

Tip #3: Dispose of the Excess Product — but NOT Down the Sink

This is the *most* important tip when it comes to recycling your beauty products. “Even if a product is technically recyclable through your curbside program, any leftover product can make the original product unrecyclable due to contamination,” says Payne. What’s worse is that if any other recyclables encounter the leftover residue, they, too, can become contaminated and therefore non-recyclable as well. So before recycling any beauty products, be sure to throw away any residual product in the garbage. Emptying products in the sink can be problematic if they contain ingredients like microbeads that can contribute to the ocean’s plastic pollution crisis if they come in contact with waterways, explains Payne.

 

Tip #4: Find Programs That Recycle the “Unrecyclable” Products

If you find that your products can’t be recycled through your municipal program, try finding a cosmetic recycling program that will do the work for you. For example, TerraCycle and Garnier have partnered to create a free recycling program for all brands of skin care, hair care and cosmetic packaging. You can recycle your products by joining the program, downloading a free shipping label and sending in your products where they will be melted down, pelletized and shaped into hard plastic to be used in things like shipping pallets and park benches. If your product cannot be recycled through your municipal program and is not accepted by any of TerraCycle’s free programs, Payne says you can also purchase one of TerraCycle’s zero-waste boxes, specifically the Beauty Products and Packaging Box, which allows you to recycle almost every kind of waste. Everything that is collected from these boxes get sorted and processed into raw materials that can be reused instead of being sent to landfill or incinerated.

 

Tip #5: Be Mindful When Buying Beauty Products

Another easy tip is to simply buy products that already come in sustainable packaging. Thankfully, there are more and more brands offering eco-friendly options to choose from. One of our favorites is Seed Phytonutrients, which even uses shower-friendly paper bottles that result in 60% less plastic than a traditional bottle. Oh, and the pumps from those bottles can be recycled for free via TerraCycle.

If you ask anyone who knows me, they’d agree that I do my best to keep up with the latest and greatest trends that make their way to my TV screen, newsfeed, and inbox. I would, by no means, consider myself a trendsetter, however, I would generously label myself as a trend chaser. And let’s be real — I hate running. Trends come and go and it can be tough to jump on a bandwagon, only to watch it fade into washed-up fad land weeks or months later. The easiest trends to follow are the ones that never go out of style and nothing says “here to stay” like taking an interest in environmental sustainability and reviewing how our day-to-day functioning impacts the planet that we call home. Historically, the beauty industry has not been kind to good ole’ Mother Earth, as it relies heavily on plastic for packaging. According to Forbes, humans will be responsible for mass-producing 50 million tons worth of plastic by 2050. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association makes an equally terrifying claim that most plastic takes an upward of 450 years to decompose. Take a look in your bathroom. How many of your products are single-use, and how many times do you mindlessly toss said items into the trash once they’re done? In my bathroom alone, I own 34 plastic bottles that I shamefully toss after use and those 34 plastic bottles will outlive me in some landfill until the year 2470. I am quite particular about the ingredients I’m using on my face, my body, and my hair, so why don’t I take as much care in researching packaging and what happens to these products that I toss into the abyss of my trash chute when they expire? I agree, it sounds selfish. I’m not waiting for the new year to make the vow to myself to reduce my plastic footprint. I’m on the hunt for brands and products that offer more sustainable packaging and I’m here to share some of my favorite finds with you. Wake up, Everygirls…life in plastic isn’t fantastic.

5. Seed Phytonutrients

Seed phytonutrients is a brand that proclaims itself to be “a young company with old-school values.” They stand behind their mission to “plant the seeds of health, well-being, and sustainability for future generations.” They use recyclable, eco-friendly packaging for all of their products, have partnered with Ecologic to create the first shower-friendly paper shampoo bottle, and have partnered with TerraCycle implemented a recycling program for Seed Phytonutrients’ pumps.

From swearing off chemicals and exclusively sourcing local, organic ingredients to opting for compostable packaging (or no packaging at all!), there's a new wave of eco-friendly makeup and skincare brands taking over the green beauty industry. And these makers aren't just greenwashing their products with buzzwords like "all-natural" on their bottles and calling it a day. They're making it their mission to ensure you feed your skin the purest ingredients nature has to offer while manufacturing more mindfully to keep their environmental footprint as small as possible.   But what exactly is a "zero-waste" product? As a whole, the term zero-waste means striving to create just that: no waste. In terms of product design, this can mean everything from completely recyclable or reusable packaging to production powered by renewable resources, all of which result in nothing going to waste or landfills. Zero-waste production may also mean working to source only local ingredients as this reduces energy spent on transportation and keeps chemicals out of the environment, respectively.   For brands like New York City-based LOLI, zero-waste means choosing responsibly-sourced, food-grade ingredients for its serums, masks, and toners instead of conventional synthetics and chemicals (which can be harsh on the skin and on the environment). For the makers of Canadian beauty brand, Elate, "zero-waste" is also about conscious packaging. By opting for reusable bamboo compacts and offering blush and foundation refills in easily recyclable aluminum tins, they can avoid single-use plastic, a material that has become an increasingly dangerous threat to our health and the health of our planet. As for body care line by Humankind, their shampoo bars (which work just like soap bars that you lather in your hair) skip plastic packaging altogether and their deodorant comes in refillable containers.   Want to see who else is shaking up the sustainable beauty game? Read ahead to discover our favorites, and learn about the simple changes you can make to make the world a greener place.

  A handful of pioneering brands are beginning to realise that our beauty products effect far more than our faces. These natural beauty brands use biodegradable or compostable packaging for their cosmetics to foster a shift in the beauty industry. Using these products could make your run-of-the-mill morning routine into a meaningful ritual that is mindful of the planet.

The Gaia hypothesis and natural beauty

  In 1995, maverick climate scientist James Lovelock and pioneering female evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis published a book called the Gaia hypothesis. Their argument was that the entire global ecosystem – from the microbes we wash off our faces in the morning, to the river basins running to the sea the world over – should be considered as a single super-organism called Gaia. The popularity of the book wasn’t unfounded; it makes a lot of sense.   We humans flourish from natural ingredients, but haven’t always followed the ethics of mutual care (or as biologists would say, symbiosis).   This is essential for a healthy, functioning organic system. We are especially lacking when it comes to the ingredients we use in our beauty routines. In fact, the packaging and chemical content of a lot of beauty products have choked watercourses with pollutants and plastic for decades.   Tending to nature and putting on makeup?   It’s one thing to reduce the environmental impact inherent in the beauty industry by reducing plastic packaging. But many companies worldwide are going further. They look at the way that natural ingredients allow us to care for ourselves and ask how can we return the favour?   If we took as much time in the day to tend to these natural systems as we took in front of the mirror using the ingredients they produce, could we ensure their sustainability for the future?   Some brands believe adding such consideration to a beauty routine can make it a ritual; a meaningful practice that redefines the way we think about make-up so that the environment benefits as well.   Here are a handful of the most inspiring brands from around the world, working to change the beauty industry from the inside out.   They are seek to re-write every step of the beauty system, from the environment that produces the ingredients to the communities where they’re farmed, to us as consumers and back again to the soil.  

Natural brands are making beauty bio

  For the most part, these natural brands beautify the product cycle by being smart about packaging, using either compostable or biodegradable materials. And there is a difference between the two.   Compostable materials can be decomposed at home, and can benefit the soil in your garden.   Though biodegradable packaging doesn’t add nutrients to the soil it is better than the plastic alternatives that will hang around for hundreds of years in landfill or in the sea.   Depending on where you live and what recycling facilities you have access to, biodegradable packaging such as cardboard can be broken down quickly in commercial waste facilities. Check your local council or borough’s website.   Biodegradable packaging in the beauty industry   Here are a few steps you can take to make sure you’re dealing with packaging that is as green as the eco powder:  

• It’s important not to get ‘greenwashed’ by recycling claims so do a little bit of research.
• If you’ve purchased something in compostable packaging, make sure you actually compost it.
• Check if the packaging can be composted at home or if it has to go to an industrial composter.
• It’s best to put biodegradable packaging in your recycling and let the council take care of it.
• Of course, some packaging can be avoided altogether and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask about the packaging on your favourite products.

  On this last point, brands like Elate (mentioned below) are happy to accommodate those with a plastic free lifestyle with their postage. As many eco-conscious beauty brands only have online stores, this global selection might also help you to consider shipping distances.  

1. Seed Phytonutrients

The tour begins with an absolutely amazing brand called Seed Phytonutrients. It’s an incubator project from the US beauty giant L’Oreal. Their packaging is made at the Ecologic factory.   What makes Seed Phytonutrients a great natural beauty brand?   Its shower-friendly paper bottle is made from a 100% recycled material.   Seed take newspaper, paper bits, cardboard, etc and grind them up to create what is essentially paper mush. The paper mush then transforms into beautiful, recycled packaging.   Their partners at TerraCycle have ensured that everything from Seed’s bottle to their pump can be recycled, making for a zero-waste situation. The natural beauty brilliance doesn’t stop there.   Together with Hudson Valley Seed Company, they have developed a little surprise inside their paper bottles. After you’ve used up all of the product in your bottle, crack it open to discover a beautifully-designed packet containing a range of heirloom herb seeds that can be grown in your garden or on your windowsill.   What have seeds got to do with natural beauty?   All of Seed’s products are sourced from seeds grown by Barefoot Botanicals. So, why the emphasis on seeds?   Seed saving is extremely important because it creates diversity in plant species that help protect them from pests, diseases and changes in climate.   The over-commercialisation of seeds in modern farming practices has meant that global biodiversity has decreased, decimating plant resilience to pests and diseases and meaning that pollinators such as bees are declining.   Seed Phytonutrients are therefore committed to supporting the growth of organic, heirloom and open-pollinated seeds and sharing them with you to create more resilient plants across our planet.   The last step in the Seed cycle is to pay growers ahead of time for 100% of their products, regardless of harvest yields, ensuring that the farmers are truly put first. If that’s not a healthy beauty system, I don’t know what is.  

2. Zao

  Next up, we go to Italy. The group of friends who founded Zao were convinced that a line of certified organic makeup must use natural packaging and the elegance and modernity of bamboo asserted itself as an obvious answer.   Why does bamboo go well with beauty?   Bamboo is really a miracle plant.  

• Its exceptional growth rate makes it a carbon capture champion during its life-cycle, without the use of fertilisers and pesticides, and allows Zao products to display a reduced carbon footprint.
• Unlike most timber, bamboo is a self-regenerating natural resource, meaning new shoots appear annually to ensure production continues after individual culms are harvested.
• It needs only four to five years to regenerate compared a minimum of 30 years for a tree.

  The bamboo Zao uses grows in endemic forests in protected areas. Their bamboo products are sold in cotton pouches to further protect them. Though less sustainable than bamboo, these pouches can be reused. As a natural material, it also biodegrades in landfills. Zao’s research and development programme is currently looking to replace their cotton pouches with bamboo fibre pouches from the end of 2018.  

3. Elate Cosmetics

  On we go to Canada, where Elate Cosmetics also use bamboo for all of their compacts, tools, and palettes. They offer discounted refills with an extra incentive in the form of special seed paper enclosed in every refill purchased. All you need to do to grow this sweet little care package is to wet, plant and water it before you step in front of the mirror to nourish yourself too.   Elate also embrace imperfect products in order to tackle waste and offer a range for their bamboo capsule products with minor flaws. Their tube products, such as the gorgeous creme blush, come in completely biodegradable paper that the DIY enthusiast in you will love, as they make perfect little seed planters!  

4. Sulapac

  We end across the border in France with some motivating news. Last year, iconic luxury house Chanel invested in Sulapac, a Finnish start-up that has produced a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics.   Sulapac products use a biodegradable and microplastic-free material made of FSC-certified wood chips and natural binders. They have all the benefits of plastic, biodegrade completely and leave no microplastics behind.   Even better, they’re designed to be immediately replaced by manufacturers using plastics, because they are compatible with existing machinery.   Biodegradable beauty is big news   There’s reason to be excited about this kind of news. Applying pressed powder from a cute compact may not feel like a revolutionary act, but big changes are happening from within the beauty industry and you can be a vital part of its transformation.   If there’s one thing that Lovelock and Margulies can teach us, it’s that the Earth is a complex system, but actions at every scale have their impacts on the total functioning of this huge, beautiful organism.   So, let the revolution begin on your skin.   Dora Young is a freelance writer and geographer with a background in sustainable food systems and a passion for finding out how to do things differently.

Though French beauty company L’Occitane Group dates its sustainability efforts back to 1976 when founder Olivier Baussan started the namesake brand, the firm’s more recent efforts speak to a shift in modern consumer values.   “Our take has evolved as the ways we all consume has changed and the way we create waste has changed,” said Ashley Arbuckle, L’Occitane Group vp of marketing and wholesale. “The things we were doing in 1976 are not enough anymore.”   Baussan may have conceived L’Occitane to support local farmers and traditional farming methods, but today its sustainability exercises extend to biodiversity and most significantly to a reduction of plastic. In February, L’Occitane Group announced its plans to become fully sustainable by 2025 by working with sustainable plastic provider Loop Industries. Prior to this announcement, only 30% of L’Occitane’s products were made with recycled plastic and it was exclusive to darker-colored product, like its Aromachologie hair-care collection — not its hero body lotion lines. L’Occitane’s in-store recycling capabilities extended to just 30% of its 1,500-plus stores worldwide.   “In the beauty industry, plastic is considered the gold standard. It is one of the materials that’s easiest to work with and it is affordable, but it’s a problem,” said Arbuckle.   According to market research firm Euromonitor International, global consumer demand for plastics exceeded 2.2 trillion units in 2018, and the beauty industry specifically accounted for nearly 153 billion units of that larger pie. What’s even more telling is that 40% of those products were packaged with single-use plastic, meaning that it was unable to be recycled and ultimately ended up in a landfill. While beauty giants like L’Occitane, L’Oréal Group and Unilever are responding to the environmental problem with vigor, the questions around sustainable alternatives remains.   “I’ve been doing this for 17 years, and everyone has always agreed that garbage is a problem, but in the past 24 months, that’s moved from a problem to a crisis,” said Tom Szaky, CEO and founder of TerraCycle, who works with all of the aforementioned conglomerates on recycling efforts, as well as Procter & Gamble and Estée Lauder Companies. Within beauty, the company has projects with 51 partners. He credits that seismic shift in behavior among both consumers and brands to the popularity of David Attenborough’s visceral nature documentary “Blue Water II.” Szaky estimates that big corporations’ recycling investments typically range in the seven figures.   Companies are responding because they see the opportunity to more deeply connect with beauty customers, he said, and recent sustainable moves can also be credited as a prevention tactic, considering Canada, for one, announced in June that it is banning single-use plastic items by 2021. Even compostable efforts, such as those favored by L’Oréal’s Seed Phytonutrients, can be viewed as problematic, because compostable packaging is better suited for developing countries where the only alternative option is simply to litter — U.K.-based retailer  Tesco even outlawed compostable products by the end of 2019, because composters view that packaging as a contaminant.   In January, Unilever announced that nine of its brands, including Love Beauty and Planet and REN Clean Skincare, would trial new reusable packaging made from aluminum and glass, while Dove would test a new refillable deodorant stick via TerraCycle’s Loop system. This comes after Unilever’s own commitment, which it announced in 2017, that its plastic packaging would be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.   “We’ve made an incredible commitment as a company, but the beauty industry is a terrible offender because there are a lot of modern conveniences to using plastic. We have to make loud standards to change existing behavior and challenge that dichotomy of putting so much out there,” said Esi Eggleston Bracey, evp and COO of beauty and personal care at Unilever North America.   Interestingly, though, bigger and smaller companies, alike, like to shout their sustainable practices from the rooftops, especially around seasonal touch points such as Earth Day, World Ocean’s Day and Zero Waste Week, but Eggleston Bracey said efforts cannot be episodic.   “There’s a tension that exists between doing and saying, and both of those things are important, but the watch-out is saying without doing. We are willing to engage in trial-and-error at Unilever, because sustainability is our business model. It’s not a marketing model, and it is our desire to lead,” she said.   However, Szaky encouraged consumers and brands to read between the lines. “A lot of these beauty companies have made lofty commitments to be fully recyclable by 2025 through the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and we are part of that foundation ourselves, but if you read the details of those press releases, they are claiming that their packaging will be ‘technically ‘ recyclable, and they’re not making any claims around practicality,” said Szaky. “Technical means the process exists, but practical means you can put it in a blue bin in Chicago or New York or anywhere, and it will be recycled. Technical recycling doesn’t take into account the profitable needs of garbage companies. Garbage companies are only going to recycle what they can make money on.”   Certainly the after-use, garbage ramifications of a product are an unsexy proposition for brands and an industry preoccupied with image. But that’s not to say companies’ practices, whether its nascent brand Circumference or Kiehl’s actions, are for naught. “We are trying to do things that make a difference and not just slap a logo on a bottle,” said Arbuckle, who noted that L’Occitane Group has existing challenges in providing recyclable options in Hawaii because of shipping costs, and that is just one hurdle it faces in becoming a fully fledged sustainable business.   Though skeptics would argue that so much talk industry-wide can be misleading, Szaky said the economics have to work for the larger landscape to change. That only comes through investment in smaller-tier programs.   “Whether it’s L’Occitane, MAC or Kiehl’s — and we run the recycling programs in all of their boutiques — those companies are paying the actual cost of collecting and processing minus the value of the product, so that recycling and those recyclable practices are becoming commonplace,” he said. “It may not work at scale with blue bins all across the world, but this gives us a solution in an imperfect world. That will ultimately affect customers’ choice of what to buy, and, no matter what, that’s feasible by 2025.”

Here’s what actually happens when you toss your plastic (and other recyclable materials) into the recycling bin: “Once you put a material in the blue bin, it’s collected by the waste collector of your city, which is a private entity, and taken to a material recovery facility that sorts all wastes into their right categories,” says Sarah Teeter, global project manager of TerraCycle, a recycling company that handles hard-to-recycle waste.

Seed Phytonutrients is a clean beauty brand you need to keep on your radar, especially now that it’s officially available at Ulta Beauty. The brand offers everything from face masks and cream to hair and body (and everything in between). But something that makes this brand extra unique is its product packaging. Their shower-friendly paper bottles are made of 100% post-consumer recycled paper with a post-consumer recycled bottle. Each product contains a packet of seeds inside of the packaging for you to get your green thumb on. Plus, they’ve partnered with recycling company TerraCycle to make recycling easy and free!

Wolf passionately pointed out the unacceptable sea of plastic created by the beauty industry and called on fellow beauty brands to dial up action. With the first shower-safe paper bottle, Seed Phytonutrients is revolutionizing environmental sustainability. The brand packaging is composed of 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper and a post-consumer recycled liner — which is 60 percent less plastic than a typical bottle — and the pump can be recycled through partner TerraCycle. Additionally, all formula ingredients are 93-100 percent natural origin.

But perhaps the biggest move forward is Loop, a new innovation from TerraCycle. The idea is simple: Durable, reusable packaging that you return through a milk man-inspired delivery and pick-up system. Corporations like P&G, Unilever, and The Body Shop have all signed onto the pilot program which launched just this week in New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Maryland. “This is a huge step for brands to take towards more sustainable packaging,” TerraCycle's Teeter says, noting that she believes that this will be the future of consumption. It’s clear that the beauty industry needs to reform, and the sooner programs like this find success, the sooner it can, but it prompts a bigger question: how much time do we really have to figure this out before it’s too late to save the oceans?