Everyone in the cosmetics and personal care business is striving to make a meaningful contribution to the future of the industry and the planet. And there are many common routes that suppliers are taking to make their companies and the beauty brands they serve more environmentally sustainable: less material, more PCR materials, mono-material packaging, novel material use, refillable packaging designs, more readily recyclable materials such as aluminum or glass, etc.
Many of these common approaches to improving the sustainability of beauty packaging lead to worthwhile innovations. But novel solutions are few and far between, which is why the following two packaging concepts stood out to me as I walked the show floor at LuxePack New York today.
What if Plastic Beauty Packaging Was Fully Degradable?
The Englewood, New Jersey – based beauty packaging and turnkey service provider Wormser Group has partnered with a biotech company called Change Plastic for Good. And together, they’ve developed a line of plastic packaging that is not only made of recyclable material but should that packaging instead reach landfill or end up in the ocean, it will degrade fully.
The secret to this novel sort of plastic packaging is an ‘ingredient’ called BDP that is added to the plastic in production. When plastic with this additive is later in an “oxygen free, microbe rich environments….[the] treated plastics are digested by microbes and the byproducts of this process are biogas…[, which] can be collected for clean energy, and…organic compost,” according to the Change Plastic For Good site.
What if Beauty Packaging Didn’t Need to be Rinsed Clean Prior to Recycling?
If you follow my work, you know that this is a question LiquiGlide has asked and has, accordingly, developed a compelling solution for, which is used by brands like Colgate and by manufacturers like Mibelle.
But what the Seongnam, Korea – based company called Innerbottle is showing at LuxePack New York this week answers the question a different—and distinctive—way.
The Innerbottle solution is an FDA food-grade polymer lining that doesn’t line the secondary packaging so much as it snugly envelopes the product itself and shrinks up as the product is used. It’s somewhat reminiscent of a bag-on-valve aerosol system but for pumps. The company’s marketing material explains that, a “conventional dispenser leaves up to 25% residue. [While] Innerbottle made it less than 1%, allowing [beauty consumers] to use the very last drop” of product.
Be the first to know when new blog posts like this one go online.
Subscribe to the Beauty Insights newsletter today!
I enjoyed LiquiGlide's demonstration at New York Suppliers Day last year. I am hoping companies from Colgate to Heinz utilize it.
Hi Deanna,
That was a very helpful article. You are so right that there are very limited options out there for truly sustainable componentry. Let‘s hope this is a trend that’s going to change!!
Thanks,
Graydon (from Graydon Skincare)