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?

At the same time, I learned consumers are twice as likely to recycle in the kitchen as opposed to the bathroom. Knowing this, our idea was to put an heirloom seed packet inside the bottle to encourage consumers to interact with the product, break open the bottle to get the seeds and consciously think about what to do with each component; the paper and plastic go in their respective recycling bins and the pump can be sent to TerraCycle free of charge.

Recycling is so much more than tossing out your empty kombucha bottle and separating your plastics from your paper products. And even if those things have become second nature in your regular routine, there are things we often overlook in the recycling process — like our makeup.   It's easy to rack up on loads of compacts, lipstick tubes, and foundation bottles, only to toss them in the trash when you're done. But more brands are trying to make your beauty routine more eco-conscious. For example, Seed Phytonutrients offers shower-friendly hair products made from recyclable material. Brands like Le Labo and L'Occitane offer refillable services at discounted prices, so customers can re-up on product without extra waste. And companies like TerraCycle work with beauty brands, like Garnier and Burt's Bees, to help recycle empty packages.   MAC Cosmetics also gives customers rewards for recycling. When you return six completely used containers to the MAC counter, you can walk away with free makeup. "Because we share your commitment to the environment, customers returning to a MAC counter or MAC Cosmetics online, you can receive a free MAC Cosmetics lipstick, or, lipgloss, or eyeshadow if you're part of the MAC Lovers program," a representative for the brand tells Refinery29. Qualified containers include blush compacts, eyeshadow pots, foundation bottles, lipstick tubes, and more. And once the products are returned to MAC through this program, they get recycled by the retailer.   So, instead of tossing that taupe shadow you just hit pan on or the Ruby Woo you've smeared to the last drop, save your empty tins. You'll be cutting back on the staggering cosmetic waste problem (have you heard of "dumpster diving"?), saving money on your next MAC purchase, and you'll be minimizing your carbon footprint.

You want to look great while respecting the planet, right? April Long Mar 15, 2019       Beauty products can have some ugly effects on the environment, choking landfills with trash and polluting our waterways. Thankfully, companies large and small are stepping up their sustainability game, prioritizing the responsible sourcing of ingredients, implementing earth-friendly manufacturing processes, and experimenting with inventive recycling programs. But we all have a role to play. Even the tiniest gestures make an impact, right down to the number of styling products we use in our hair. Here, how you can help.  

The issue: squandering our resources.

  The way plant ingredients in your creams and shampoos are farmed affects local communities and ecosystems—and a product’s overall carbon footprint. One of the most egregious examples is palm oil, whose derivatives appear in a whopping 70 percent of cosmetics. Indiscriminate building of palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia has decimated rainforests, and research indicates that deforestation releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Also, most personal care products use water in manufacturing and as a main ingredient—and the availability of clean, drinkable water is expected to nose-dive by 2050, thanks to climate change, pollution, and increased demand.  

What’s being done?

  Mega-companies are making major changes. L’Oréal, which has committed to being deforestation-free by 2020, and Estée Lauder are working closely with the global nonprofit Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to ensure that their cultivation methods and sourcing have minimal negative environmental impact.   So is Unilever—the parent company of Dove, St. Ives, and Pond’s—which released its entire supply chain to the public, promising to source all its palm oil sustainably. That’s a big deal, given that Unilever brands go through more than a million metric tons of the stuff per year. In addition, Unilever and L’Oréal are putting resource efficiency front and center, devising innovative ways to use less water in production and with products themselves (low-water-use shampoo, fast-rinse conditioners).   One of the most exciting developments, though, is brought to us by biotechnology, which companies are using to create environmentally responsible ingredients. The skincare line Biossance makes its squalane, a naturally occurring oil traditionally derived from shark livers or olives, from renewable sugarcane, and the brand Algenist’s key anti-agers, alguronic acid and microalgae oil, come from sustainable algae.  

What can you do?

  At home is start by being mindful of your water use. Turn off the shower while shaving, and skip a shampoo occasionally. If you want to go full-on farm-to-face, choose green beauty standouts like Jurlique, Juice Beauty, Dr. Hauschka, and Tata Harper—they all grow botanicals on their own farms. Otherwise, look for labels such as Ecocert, which guarantees the use of renewable ingredients.           Seed Phytonutrients founder Shane Wolf, who worked to develop the first-ever shower-friendly paper bottles, made from 100 percent recycled material and used for the brand’s shampoo, conditioners, cleansers, and hand wash. More than 60 percent of paper is recycled, while less than 10 percent of plastic is, “Any move away from plastic toward paper is a move in the right direction,” says Wolf. And hidden inside each bottle is a packet of seeds, which can be planted to grow heirloom herbs.    

The issue: emissions and pollution.

  Global fossil fuel–related emissions of carbon dioxide reached an estimated record high of 37.1 billion metric tons in 2018, which is putting us on course for a very hot and smoggy planet. Consumers—that’s us!—are calling for accountability and action, and brands are responding.  

What’s being done?

  The big guys are effecting big change. Several items in Garnier’s SkinActive linehave earned Cradle to Cradle certification, which measures environmental impact over the life of a product, and parent company L’Oréal USA has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality for its plants and distribution centers this year by switching to renewable energy. (Fun fact: The Maybelline Great Lash mascaras sold in America are made with 100 percent renewable electricity.)   And remember those plastic microbeads from face scrubs and cleansers that were turning up in lakes and oceans (and fish bellies) a few years ago? They’ve been banned from rinse-off personal care products in the U.S. Small brands are making a difference, too. Most of Tata Harper’s packaging is made from easily recyclable glass (more than one ton of natural resources, like sand or limestone, is saved for every ton of glass recycled), and the plastic used for its tubes is derived from corn rather than petroleum.  

What can you do?

  Try an eco-audit of your own daily beauty regimen, assessing the number of products you buy and how much waste is produced as a result. The Nature Conservatory’s carbon calculator (nature.org) helps you determine your footprint, then offers tips on what you can do to decrease it. One thing you shouldn’t do: Clean your face with a non-biodegradable wet wipe—and you really shouldn’t flush it down the toilet. Why? Just Google “fatberg.”   Former fragrance exec Marcella Cacci launched the skincare line One Ocean Beauty in 2018 with a simple mission: to help protect the health of the oceans. The brand harnesses “blue biotechnology,” which involves reproducing marine extracts from algae, kelp, and seaweed in the lab rather than harvesting them from the sea. This means there’s no impact on the ocean’s natural bounty. “We never hurt the biodiversity,” says Cacci, who adds that the brand has also donated $250,000 to Oceana, the largest global nonprofit focused solely on ocean conservation.  

The issue: waste.

  A staggering eight million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean every year, with countless pieces of bottle caps and straws in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is actually two large masses between Japan and the U.S. West Coast. If current trends continue, it’s predicted that by 2050, plastic will outweigh fish in our oceans, and 12 billion metric tons of it will sit in landfills. The beauty industry, which produces billions of plastic packaging units annually, has a lot to answer for.  

What’s being done?

  Plenty! Unilever and L’Oréal have committed to using 100 percent recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025; Procter & Gamble, the übercompany behind Pantene, Head & Shoulders, and Herbal Essences, has pledged the same by 2030. Beginning this year, haircare brand Kevin Murphy is going all in, sourcing its packaging from reclaimed ocean plastic, a move that will save more than 360 tons of new plastic annually. Since 2011, Garnier has partnered with TerraCycle to tackle previously unrecyclable beauty packaging, diverting approximately 11.2 million empties from landfills. And at the World Economic Forum in January, a consortium of brands, including REN Clean Skincare and the Body Shop, announced participation in Loop, a shopping program that will offer products in durable packaging that can be returned, sanitized, and reused (like old-school milk bottles). It’s set to launch in the New York City area and France this spring.  

What can you do?

  Excuse us for shouting, but...RECYCLE! According to the Environmental Protection Agency, recycling just ten plastic bottles saves enough energy to power a laptop for more than 25 hours. Since products used in the bathroom tend to have a low recycling rate (people typically keep their bins in the kitchen), make it easier for yourself by keeping a ready receptacle next to the shower. Need more incentive? Kiehl’s, Lush, and MAC offer freebies when you bring in empties, and others, including Origins and Tenoverten (with nail salons in New York City, Los Angeles, and Austin), will accept containers from other brands as well. When shopping, gravitate toward items without excess packaging (or none at all—Lush’s new Naked concept stores offer bath products, haircare in bar form, and facial soaps with no packaging whatsoever), or look for a label that specifies 100 percent recycled content.   Since its inception in 2013, Beautycounter has become one of America’s most trusted sources for cleaner skincare and makeup. Founder Gregg Renfrew’s top goal is ingredient safety (the company’s do-not-use list includes approximately 1,500 chemicals), and she views sustainability as intrinsically linked to that mission. “We’re committed to making decisions that are based on scientific research, but given the large data gaps around safety and sustainability, it’s extremely complicated,” Renfrew says.   To help close those gaps, Beautycounter partners with researchers and universities, and has screened more than 1,000 ingredients for their effects on our health and the environment. Meanwhile, Renfrew is advocating for increased federal oversight to help clean up cosmetics: She and her team have met repeatedly with D.C. lawmakers to lobby for legislation like the Personal Care Products Safety Act, which would give the FDA the power to, among other things, regulate potentially harmful ingredients.  

The issue: animal testing.

  This practice may not be directly related to the environment, but should concern anyone who cares about our fellow living creatures. While the U.S. is inching toward a ban (California will prohibit the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals starting next year, and New York and Hawaii have introduced similar legislation), many companies have implemented their own prohibitions on testing. The EU has forbidden it outright, but it’s actually still required for foreign products sold in China. For an international corporation that wants to do business there, this is a problem.  

What’s being done?

  Multinationals and smaller brands alike are pushing for change in China and countries that still permit animal testing; in 2018, the Body Shop and Cruelty Free International (CFI) brought a petition with 8.3 million signatures they’d gathered worldwide to the UN, calling for a global ban.  

What can you do?

  Check labels for a little rabbit; it signifies that CFI’s Leaping Bunny program has certified a product as cruelty-free. If in doubt, check Leaping Bunny’s website or head to PETA to find the rigorously vetted Beauty Without Bunnies list, which ensures that neither brands nor their ingredient suppliers are spritzing hairspray in any animal’s eyes.  

Sustainable Cosmetics Summit will return to NYC for 10th year

14-Mar-2019 By Deanna Utroske The green beauty conference event hosted by ecovia Intelligence is set to take place in New York City again this May and will feature an array of expert speakers from innovative brands like Pinch of Colour, material recycling ventures like TerraCycle, natural ingredient suppliers like Down Under Enterprises, and more.

You want to look your best—but what if that comes at the price of the planet’s health? Thankfully, some of the biggest brands are making it easier than ever to embrace sustainable beauty. By Lindsy Van Gelder Everyone has a carbon footprint. But you also have a carbon face print, plus a carbon hair print, skin print—even an underarm print. Everything we slather on to make ourselves prettier has the potential to make the world an uglier place with problematic ingredients and packaging. It used to be that consumers who cared about the environment got very little help. You could buy your cosmetics from a small rack at the health food store and upcycle jars and bottles as knickknacks. You could also be the Debbie Downer who reminded everyone that rain forests and rabbits were suffering for our vanity.   But times—and beauty products—are changing. A survey by Unilever-—the maker of   Dove, Vaseline, Love Beauty and Planet, and scores of other brands—found that 78% of U.S. consumers now feel better when they buy products that are sustainably produced. “Consumers are looking for ways to help make an impact,” says Esi Eggleston Bracey, EVP and COO of  North American Beauty and Personal Care at Unilever. As part of a global green strategy to help their customers do just that, she adds, Unilever is working to “make sure 100% of our plastic packaging is re-usable, recyclable or compostable” by 2025. The company’s wide-ranging Sustainable Living Plan also includes a project to transform the industry that manufactures palm oil, an ingredient in shampoo and makeup, among many other products. The cultivation of oil palms has caused severe deforestation, threatening many species, including orangutans in Southeast Asia.   Meanwhile, in a program serving children all over the world who face severe health challenges from contaminated water, Procter & Gamble provided its 14 billionth liter of clean drinking water last year. L’Oréal launched the world’s first shower-proof paper bottle as part of its Seed Phytonutrients personal care line. What’s more, “today all our plants and distribution centers—19 facilities across 12 states—run on renewable energy,” notes Danielle Azoulay, head of corporate social responsibility and sustainability for L’Oréal USA. Several other large beauty companies (and small ones) have also gone over to the green side. And that may be thanks to shoppers like you. “Consumers are starting to push the market, and companies pick up on that,” says Carla Burns, research analyst at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG). But as lovely as it is that many big corporations have stepped up, she adds, consumers need to remain vigilant. For cosmetics, “the FDA still does not regulate words like ‘natural’ or ‘non-toxic,’ ” she explains, and not every company is committed to helping customers make healthy choices. “Packaging can be misleading—lots of green and flowers and bamboo. Consumers need to do their homework about what’s in products and whether they want to put it on their bodies.” So the next time you’re walking the aisles and filling your basket, here are a few things to consider.

Transparency and Ingredients

Although she’s a fan of educated consumers, Burns acknowledges that “not everyone has a degree in chemistry,” and squinting at labels can only get you so far. Plenty of controversial chemicals—DEA, BHA, phthalates, parabens, phenols, triclosan, formaldehyde and more—are permitted in beauty products (American products, anyway; some 1,000 ingredients that have been banned in consumer products in Europe are permitted here).   Even if you were to memorize which chemicals might be irritating or dangerous, they often go by multiple names that can appear on an ingredient list. Plus, federal regulation allows companies to leave some “trade secret” ingredients off  their labels. That’s why the EWG created the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, a website that lists the ingredients and potential hazards of nearly 70,000 products and lets users search by ingredient, product name or company. (The app has been downloaded 1.3 million times.) Ecocert, a European group that operates in scores of countries, including the U.S., certifies that cosmetics contain organic, sustainable, non-synthetic ingredients. Products that pass inspection carry the “Ecocert Organic” or “Ecocert Natural” seal.

Animal Welfare

Again, lists can help shoppers separate the sheep from the goats, as it were. But you can also get a little help from a label’s graphics: Look for the cruelty-free Leaping Bunny logo, awarded by a consortium of eight animal welfare groups, including the Humane Society.   Another list of companies that don’t test on animals is available from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (whose logo is, confusingly, also a bunny.) In addition, the PETA website features a list of cruelty-free vegan companies. (Burt’s Bees, for example, is cruelty-free, but because its products use honey and beeswax, they’re not vegan.) And some brands, like Unilever’s Schmidt’s Naturals, provide funding to animal-loving causes. Its new cruelty-free vegan deodorant, Lily of the Valley, was inspired by a favorite scent of primatologist Jane Goodall, with 5% of all proceeds earmarked for the Jane Goodall Institute.  

Packaging

You may have heard about that garbage patch in the Pacific that’s twice the size of Texas. In fact, the World Economic Forum has predicted that at the rate humans are trashing the ocean, there will be, pound for pound, more plastic than fish by 2050. And beauty brands are literally cleaning up their acts. For instance, a new bottle for Procter & Gamble’s Herbal Essences shampoo is fabricated with 25% former beach plastic.   You can have a hand in this as well. Familiarize yourself with the types of materials your town recycles, then aim to buy products with appropriate packaging whenever possible. And commit to actually doing the recycling—even if it means remembering to grab that empty shampoo bottle out of the master bathroom and bring it down the stairs and out to the bin in the garage.   Granted, some beauty products are notoriously difficult to recycle—pump dispensers, hairspray triggers, eye shadow cases, lipstick tubes, pencils, shampoo and conditioner bottle caps and almost anything else that’s small. But one of the newest frontiers in eco-beauty is mail-in recycling. Garnier has teamed up with the private recycling company TerraCycle to sponsor free recycling of any brand’s plastics and packaging. It’s small efforts like these that will eventually add up and, ideally, leave our children with a Pacific that has a garbage patch that’s even smaller than Rhode Island.  

Stop us if you've heard this before: In an effort to make your hair-care routine a little greener, you switch up your shampoo and conditioner only to find that the new stuff just ain't cutting it. What's an earth- (and beauty)-loving person to do? Thankfully, sustainable brands are stepping things up in a major way with products that are both effective and kind to the environment, the most recent example being Seed Phytonutrients, the farm-to-bottle beauty company that launched in April 2018 under the L'Oréal umbrella. In addition to officially hitting Sephora online and in stores, the green beauty brand is ringing in 2019 with a major expansion of their hair-care offerings, as Allure exclusively reports.   "We have a very clear understanding of what our community cares about, and how we bring value to their lives," founder Shane Wolf tells Allure. "One of the things that we heard very early on was this need — specifically within the hair category — for targeted solutions." Enter the brand's newest collections in the hair space, which address moisture, frizz, color, and volume, respectively. Previously, the brand shook things up (and left us just plain shook) with its original range of hair products, which includes a daily shampoo and conditioner encased in waterproof paper packaging. "Consumers were saying that they were so excited to have a new solution from a brand that is natural and sustainable," Wolf says. "They loved the idea, but they weren’t ready to — nor should they — compromise the needs of their hair."       Each of the four collections contains a shampoo, conditioner, and leave-in treatment (the last comes in a variety of formulations ranging from a texture mist to a smoothing cream). "When it came to the products, what our consumers were saying was that they were struggling to find something that was high performance but also clean and natural," adds Brad Farrell, Seed Phytonutrients' lead brand farmhand (for those wondering — yes, that's his official title). "For us, it was about figuring what we already did really strongly — our Daily Hair Cleanser was our number one product — but making it specified for different customer needs."   And in keeping with the brand's MO, the philosophy behind the launches was that no matter the hair concern, there's an organic seed oil that can help address it: The hero ingredient of the Moisture range is organic meadowfoam seed oil ("one of the most hydrating seed oils," according to Farrell), whereas organic raspberry seed (a natural antioxidant) and grapefruit oil make their way into the Color and Volume ranges, respectively. Organic jojoba and coconut oil from the Anti-Frizz range act as a natural alternative to silicones. The products have been formulated to suit a wide variety of hair types, with Farrell name-checking the Moisture range as the most versatile for textures ranging from kinky to straight.   Back to the packaging for a sec: Made in collaboration with Ecologic, the brand is taking its innovative, shower-safe paper bottles to a greener level using an impressive 70 percent less plastic than conventional designs. "By moving into this packaging, it was a disruption — and something that many people were experiencing for the first time," Wolf says of the I-can't-believe-it-doesn't-disintegrate material. "We were passionate about further improvement, and we will never stop pushing ourselves until we can ultimately eradicate plastics from the industry altogether." The brand has also been working closely with TerraCycle, a company specializing in hard-to-recycle materials, to ensure that elements like bottle pumps are also recyclable.     However exciting the newness is — and trust us, it is — that's not the only thing that's got Seed Phytonutrients hyped for the New Year. As previously mentioned, the brand launched at Sephora on January 1, with an in-store launch of select products following on January 11. As for how the partnership came about? Well, to say it was a natural fit is almost too on the nose, but the truth is that a lot of it had to do with the May 2018 launch of Clean at Sephora, the beauty behemoth's new category and standard of products free of ingredients like sulfates, phthalates, and more. "We have a very strong point of view when it comes to sustainability in beauty, and when we saw a retail partner [like Sephora] take an important, consumer-facing step forward [in supporting sustainability], my heart leapt," Wolf says of the announcement. "We really doubled down on our efforts then to make a connection with the team, and from the beginning, it was magic."