is recycled plastic the ultimate solution to sustainable packaging in beauty industry?
From our new government policy to multi-national corporations, everyone is demanding more sustainable and environmental products, and services from businesses. Even financial investment industry is focusing on investing their money in companies who are playing in the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) field. European Commission decided to ban all throwaway plastic packaging by 2023. Under this new EU rules, European states are expected to recycle 90 percent of their plastic bottles by 2025. These new sustainable packaging regulations and new policies are reshaping the refined and rigid beauty industry. From small business to global corporations are demanded to change their process and supply chain in order to transition to more sustainable products and services.
During these early stage of the sustainable discussions, plastic is on the hot seat. Everyone is looking at plastic as main material to transition away from or transform the manufacturing process. As everyone is looking into plastic as the main source of evil to environment, it is critical that we really don’t loose sight on carbon footprint impact of plastic vs. other alternative material such as glass or paper. Plastic has so many manufacturing and logistic advantages that reduces the carbon footprint impact compared to alternatives. And, this is why it is almost impossible to stop using plastic as main packaging platform anytime soon.
There are two different types of recycling process within plastic packaging; chemical recycled plastic and mechanical recycled plastic. The mechanical recycled plastic is essentially using already produced and distributed plastic packaging and reusing those materials back into the manufacturing process such as injection molding. It is the more immediate and cost effective solutions to sustainable plastic manufacturing. However, it has some disadvantages such as discoloration, lack of quality control and aesthetic limitations. On the other hand, chemical recycled plastic is more time consuming and expensive to implement. But, this chemical recycling process can essentially make the post consumed plastic packaging back to its original resin compound form. The only question is how much carbon footprint do we save during this post process to transform these packaging back to its original resin form. Also, the post consumed recycling infrastructure needs to be improved vestry in order to reduce the cost of this process. regional municipal waste industry needs to transform their business quickly in order to make this chemical recycling a chance to compete for ultimate solution to sustainable packaging solutions.
Korean makeup beauty brand, Clio Cosmetics recently launched its new Prism Highlighter Duo in 30% certified recycled content that includes, Eastman’s post consumed recycled plastic. Eastman is stating that Clio cosmetic is using their molecular recycling technologies called Cristal Renew. Even though Clio cosmetic is a rather smaller player within the cosmetic industry with small footprint in the global market, it is interesting to see global specialty chemical company partnering with beauty brand to launch chemical recycled plastic packaging. I am thrilled to see more beauty brands partnering with plastic chemical and manufacturing companies to innovate and implement this new technology.