Upcycled avocado seeds replace banned microplastic beads in cosmetics

30 Sep 2022 --- Ground avocado seeds are “for the first time” being upcycled and added to a range of cosmetics to replace the currently banned and environmentally harmful plastic micro-beads previously used. The UK-based Westfalia Fruit business supplies the ground avocado to the beauty brand Dr. Craft, after three years of R&D and product testing.

“The project has involved several UK universities, including Leeds and Kingston, to verify and validate the use of avocado seeds,” shares Johnathan Sutton, group safety and environmental executive at Westfalia Fruit.

“The extraction process is very complex, but with perseverance, a perfect particle size and process was discovered to work within a cosmetic body scrub as the replacement for microbeads.”

Sutton is working with Dr.Craft and its “academic arm” Keracol, ensuring that the avocado stones meet the cosmetics safety requirements.

Science upcycles peels and stones
Westfalia Fruit shares that avocado waste components – skins and stones – are currently used in low-value anaerobic digestors. However, upcycling the waste brings a higher value alternative to beauty and cosmetics products.

The upcycled avocado seed is used in body scrubs.“The Dr. Craft brand is founded on scientific knowledge, using nature as our inspiration,” comments professor Richard Blackburn, co-founder and director at Keracol and Dr. Craft. 

“With a focus on green chemistry, our previous research looked at extracts from wine industry grape waste and citrus peels in several different products, but the more we studied avocados, the more interesting and exciting it became.”

Graham Young, global category management executive at Westfalia Fruit, says he views the initiative as an example of innovation in the industry.

“These are not overnight developments. However, through extensive research, experimentation and demonstration, as well as the correlation and application of scientific knowledge, we are proving that much is possible coupled with partnering with like-minded organizations.”

EU and UK regulations
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) considers microplastics to be typically smaller than 5 mm.

Moreover, the personal care association Cosmetics Europe recently shared that intentionally added microplastics in cosmetics and other products are subject to the European restriction proposal by the ECHA, which has been working on the issue since 2017.

The UK government banned microbead containing products in 2018.“The restriction is currently in its final stages before adoption by the EU regulator and aims to address potential human health and/or environmental concerns caused by microplastics intentionally added to consumer or professional use products of any kind.”

In June 2018, the UK Government banned the sale of products containing microbeads – “to prevent these harmful pieces of plastic entering the marine environment.”

The pieces of beads are often added to products such as face scrubs, soaps, toothpaste and shower gels.

“Just one shower alone is thought to send 100,000 microbeads down the drain and into the ocean, causing serious harm to marine life,” flags the government.

Another way of tackling microplastics is for companies to declare products are 100% plastic-free, suggests the Plastic Soup Foundation.

By Venya Patel