Estée Lauder Companies and glass recyclers break down intricacies of luxury cosmetic packaging

23 Apr 2024 --- Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) is announcing R&D developments within its partnership with North American glass recycler Strategic Materials (SMI) and drawing attention to the lack of high-quality post-consumer glass destined for recycling.

ELC and SMI recently completed their four-year research (2020–2024) to identify ways to enhance the recyclability of cosmetic glass packaging and the availability of recycled materials. The research involved “in-depth” testing of more than 200 glass beauty containers and packages to understand these barriers better and explore potential solutions.

The results have yielded new insights into the recyclability of various decorations, colors and formats. They also offer best design practices that may serve as a guide to designers, developers, suppliers and brands to help advance circularity.

“While most North America public recycling guidelines and instructions emphasize amber, green or clear glass as preferred material colors for recyclability, the use of multiple decorations, colors and formats to achieve unique packaging aesthetics in the luxury cosmetics industry may at times inadvertently inhibit recyclability,” states the partnership.

“Understanding what makes glass cosmetic packaging efficiently sortable and overcoming the challenges of delivering luxury decorations, colors and formats that can be identified as recyclable by recyclers in practice and at scale represents a unique opportunity for the cosmetics industry.”

Improving contamination rates
ELC and SMI plan to publish their findings publicly within the next few weeks to inspire to offer guidance to the North American cosmetics industry by promoting “more strategic design.”

Glass packaging has found favor with eco-conscious consumers for circular economy credentials, as the glass bottle specialist O-I previously affirmed in a Packaging Insights interview.

However, ELC and SMI flag the need for high-quality post-consumer recycled “furnace-ready” glass, or cullet, which has created a need to continue improving contamination rates by having a cleaner stream of input materials.

Moreover, a Zero Waste Europe report warns that despite being “infinitely recyclable,” glass’ heavy environmental footprint is “rarely offset” by effective national infrastructure.

Despite being considered infinitely recyclable, reports warn that glass’ footprint is rarely offset by effective national infrastructure.“Learnings and best practices highlighted in this study will help the industry design glass packaging that yields a higher output of glass to support local and national governments in an effort to increase recyclability rates around the world, especially as public recycling guidelines and regulations continue to vary across markets globally,” shares ELC and SMI.

“This not only helps increase the amount of material that gets recycled through their facilities but also generates higher quality recycled glass.”

Green ambitions
This collaboration intends to support ELC’s “broader efforts” to help reduce the potential environmental impacts of a package across its lifecycle. ELC uses various packaging materials — including glass — across its brand and product portfolio.

ELC has committed that by next year, around 75–100% of its packaging will be recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled or recoverable.

The luxury house also intends to increase the amount of PCR material in its packaging to 25% or more within this time frame.

Most recently, ELC announced a commitment to reduce the amount of virgin petroleum plastic in its packaging to 50% or less by the end of calendar year 2030.

Additionally, the company is committed to using responsibly sourced paper products “whenever possible,” with a goal to have 100% of its forest-based fiber cartons RSC certified by 2025.

By Benjamin Ferrer

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