Personal care packaging: The slow crawl towards sustainability

12 Dec 2019 --- Recyclable, reusable, biodegradable, compostable or plain eco-friendly, sustainability trends are sweeping the packaging industry. In light of the growing global concern for the natural environment, sustainability is an overarching theme with high penetration in the packaging industry. Beyond food and beverages, and the hurdles in sustainability to be overcome there, the personal care sector is also making an effort toward more eco-friendly packaging. There is some ambiguity, however, in the “true” sustainability of plastic-alternatives and how best to achieve circular material economies. Moreover, the question remains – is sustainability done right or is it another marketing ploy?

Personal care products are used by consumers daily and cater to their sanitary and cosmetic needs. Despite being an integral part of one’s everyday routine, products that go beyond the necessity of basic hygiene can be considered a “luxury.” This is why personal care packaging is often designed with “indulgence” in mind, which can make packaging formats both “premium” and unsustainable.

Speaking at the in-cosmetics Formulation Summit 2019, in London, Catherine Conway, the Founder and Director of Unpackaged Innovation, addressed the sorely overlooked issue of unsustainable packaging in the personal care industry.

“Sustainable packaging has taken many other industries by storm but in personal care, things are moving very slowly. Most packaging is very unsustainable. I don’t understand how the personal care space has been getting away with it so far,” she tells PackagingInsights. Conway attributes this oversight to the fact that personal care involves products that are marketed as a luxury, a commodity to pamper oneself with. 

The real opportunity for the health and body care sector is in reusable and refillable packaging, Conway says. “We all know that the waste hierarchy dictates that we should first reduce packaging and then look at the other options for reuse, before looking at recycling, which is where the sector currently is,” she says.

Catherine Conway, the Founder and Director of Unpackaged Innovation, addressed the overlooked issue of unsustainable packaging in the personal care industry, at in-cosmetics 2019 in London, UK.A refillable system means the customer brings in refillable packaging along to the store. A reusable system could be picked up in-store or sent to the home, with the brand or packaging manufacturer taking care of refilling, cleaning and reusing. 

“A refillable packaging system would be the right answer for some customers, some of the time. As with single-use packaging, there are many types of styles of packaging for every product. This is the same for reusable packaging, so it is up to brands to understand which of the refill and reusable packaging would be best for their product and customer base,” Conway notes.

“Reuseable is only possible on a big scale. You need the economics of a big scale to make it work commercially, logistically and to improve the environmental benefits,” she adds.

Refillable personal care
During her speech, Conway implored the personal care industry to adopt a “reuse, refill, repeat” approach in packaging. Refillable beauty products have been tested by major companies as part of wider plastic reduction strategies. However, issues such as packaging and product contamination, as well as scalability are proving challenging. 

Some brands, however, have successfully employed the method, such as “by Humankind.” This line of non-harmful personal care products is designed to be refilled and eliminates single-use plastic by 90 percent or more, the company says.

Beauty industry heavyweight Dove unveiled new initiatives aiming to reduce the use of virgin plastic by more than 20,500 metric tons per year. The Unilever brand intends to realize this through the integrated use of alternative packaging materials, recycled plastic “where needed” and investing in refill technology. Dove highlights exceptions within its whole portfolio that are not fully 100 percent recycled, with expressed plans to reach the 100 percent benchmark “very soon.

Olay also remodeled its Olay Regenerist Whip moisturizer with a refill pod made from recyclable polypropylene that fits within its jar. Brand-owner Procter & Gamble (P&G) says the beauty brand project will save over 1,000,000 lbs of plastic, per five million jars sold.

In the same space, the US-based Package Free shop, marketed as the “first and largest zero-waste lifestyle shop,” is also offering package free and refillable options in personal care. The brand also announced a US$4.5 million seed round led by Primary Venture Partners to grow the brand and begin manufacturing its own sustainable product lines.

Major players making major moves
Multinational consumer goods company Unilever recently announced it plans to slash its use of virgin plastic by half by 2025. This will be achieved by the use of alternatives such as bamboo, cardboard and recycled materials. Currently the firm’s plastic packaging footprint is roughly 700,000 MT and Unilever hopes to reduce this by 350,000 MT. 

The company’s personal care division is a major contributor to its plastic packaging use. One of the steps is making bamboo toothbrushes, shampoo bars and cardboard deodorant sticks, as well as refillable toothpaste tablets.

In the same spirit, cosmetics mega brand, L’oreal recently launched a new range, coined Seed Phytonutrients, which combines sustainable ingredient sourcing with a landmark shift toward paper packaging. The products come in a shower-friendly paper that is both recyclable and compostable. This is a first for the industry, coming from a beauty behemoth like L’Oréal. 

“Sustainability is very much linked to packaging but this also requires the right approach,” Amit Tewari, Group Leader, Phytochemical Ingredient Science at L’Oréal Research and Innovation, tells PackagingInsights. “A product’s concept is accompanied by the packaging and a sustainable approach to it needs to reflect that as well. However, it remains to be seen what sustainable packaging really entails,” he adds.

L’oreal recently launched a new range, coined Seed Phytonutrients - a landmark shift toward paper packaging.“Some companies are moving towards packaging derived from sugarcane. However, these crops use inordinate amounts of water and the aftermath of harvesting sugarcane, leading often to farmers burning unused crops, is causing significant environmental pollution. This renders it an unsustainable option in the end,” Tewari notes.

Eco-friendly alternatives
Speaking to PackagingInsights, Pat Thomas, Environmental Author and Consultant, says that 100 percent sustainable packaging production is far from reality for the time being. Major players cannot achieve this yet, as in large scale production it proves a challenge, but smaller brands are doing a better job at striving for sustainable options.

Cutting back on virgin plastics seems to be a one-way street toward more sustainable products. However, can all plastic alternatives be considered a viable option that will not cause a different kind of damage to the environment? Among the popularized plastic replacement solutions is packaging derived from sugarcane biomaterial, which has been flagged as potentially more hazardous due to the high usage of water it requires in production. Moreover, the disposal of sugarcane waste (via burning, for example) can cause significant atmospheric pollution.

“Alternative bio-based packaging is a good solution for some products, but it all depends on the waste disposal infrastructure available to the consumers who are buying these products,” says Conway. 

“Any brand or packaging designer should start with the waste disposal options in mind and ensure their single-use packaging can be disposed of directly through recycling or composting. If it can't be, then composting packaging has some benefits, in the sense that it is not made of fossil fuels, however, it will not get all the benefits if ends up in landfill or incineration,” she adds.

To date, the most popular alternative and sustainable materials include:

• Bamboo: The fastest-growing plant in the world, making it a viable renewable material resource. In fact, bamboo grows faster when it is cut down. 
• Paperboard: A compostable/biodegradable material derived from recycled paper pulp. When manufactured and disposed of properly, it can present a renewable material source.
• Glass and metal: 100 percent recyclable materials. This means that they can be infinitely recycled into new packaging without loss of quality. It is also very easy to repurpose a glass or metal container, making the materials ideal for reusable packaging innovations..
• Recycled plastic: Companies are increasingly looking to recycled plastics to create packaging.

What’s next
Despite efforts in sustainability, the personal care industry still has a long way to go before it can achieve completely environmentally friendly packaging. However, attempts at increasing sustainability have been made and are expected to improve over time. With the fate of the earth at stake, it seems like the only option is to go greener and consumers now regard the sustainability of packaging as a key selling point for personal care products.

By Kristiana Lalou