How Disposable Materials and Sustainable Development Be Co-Existed

On the road to sustainability goals, "disposable" has always been rejected by many consumers. Clean beauty retailer Credo already banned disposable products such as sheet masks, wipes, samples and spoon that come with products starting in 2020. British health retailer Holland & Barrett The British also announced in September last year to stop selling disposable masks.

According to NielsenIQ data released last month, beauty consumers are paying more attention to sustainable products with searches for refillable fragrances up 431% and searches for hair care products in biodegradable packaging jumping 1,587%. In addition, the popular concept of "clean" is taking on a more sustainable connotation. Anna Mayo, beauty consumer director at NielsenIQ said: "Whereas consumers once expected 'clean' to be free of harmful ingredients but now consumers also expect them to be free of single-use plastics."

Indeed, the environmental impact of these products can not be ignored. In 2020, the environmental organization A Plastic Planet has sent an open letter to the EU and the British government calling for a ban on the use of disposable pouches in the beauty and personal care industry. In the letter, it mentioned that the beauty industry produces 122 billion "disposable, worthless and non-recyclable" pouches each year in the world". And as global market size of nearly $ 200 million, it is evident that the environmental damage caused by sheet masks.

With a huge market demand on the one hand, and a much-criticized waste and pollution problem on the other, how can these products, originally designed to be "disposable", be environmentally friendly?

One way is to make these products easier to recycle. Last year, British packaging company Origin launched Snappd, a more environmentally friendly small sample pack that can be opened by folding it in half, which, according to the company, produces much less microplastic than tearing open the pack. While Snappd was produced in a closed-loop format using more than 30 percent post-consumer recycled material and is 100 percent recyclable in the UK and Europe. Snappd is suitable for liquid, gel, cream, lotion and other forms of products and can be used in a wide range of industries such as pharmaceuticals and food in addition to beauty and personal care.

Sampling Innovations Europe, which specializes in providing the sample and small-volume packaging for companies such as P&G and Coty, has also developed environmentally friendly packaging that uses single-material, easy-to-recycle pressed-layer and polypropylene packaging, more eco-friendly raw materials, and reduced plastic use.

Skincare brand Ren has also switched its sample packaging to more recyclable aluminum, using Monotube, the latest product from aluminum tube manufacturer Tubex, which is made entirely of recycled aluminum, 95% of which is post-consumer recyclable material.

Another idea is to use biodegradable or compostable materials.

To better preserve ingredient activity as well as increase portability, many skincare brands package their products in small capsules. However, this product format can also generate more waste and using biodegradable capsules is a common practice for brands. Elizabeth Arden, for example, mentions that they are biodegradable in the introduction of several of its capsules.

Recently, Common Heir, an up-and-coming skincare brand that just announced a $2.5 million funding round, is also using greener capsule packaging materials as part of its sustainability commitment. The brand, which launches in 2021, currently has two products, Vitamin C Extract and Vitamin A Alcohol Extract, that use biodegradable capsules that, according to the brand, are based on plant-based ingredients and can be melted in boiling water.

While "recyclable," "biodegradable," and "compostable" are starting to appear more and more in beauty product claims, they don't always end up where brands expect them to. According to the World Economic Forum, only 14 percent of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally. Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, has said, "Recycling may seem like it's long overdue, but the truth is that only half of Americans can make recycling as easy as throwing out the trash."

And "biodegradable" is not the quick "return to nature" that many consumers understand it to be, according to Mia Davis, Credo's director of social responsibility, who believes the concept is often misunderstood, saying. "Plant and food waste are much easier to break down and the process doesn't use much energy or time resulting in a high-quality fertilizer. But that's not the case for plastics." In addition, a study by TerraCycle showed that only one in ten industrial composters accept compostable plastics.

While consumer education is an important part of the circular economy, it still takes an industry-wide effort to make a product, especially one that is used very infrequently, more environmentally friendly when recycling and waste disposal mechanisms are not yet in place throughout the industry.