Leaders OF THE pack

With consumer interest in sustainable practices continuing to grow, salons and spas are increasingly looking to their suppliers for support, demanding both transparency in ingredient sourcing and reductions in packaging waste.

According to the Soil Association’s 2020 beauty report, 69% of consumers are now looking for beauty products with recyclable packaging, yet making that change is not as straightforward as it may seem.

“The beauty industry is one of the worst culprits when it comes to plastic pollution,” comments IIAA’s director of education, Tracy Tamaris.

“It has been estimated that 120 billion units of non-recyclable packaging are produced every year by the global cosmetics industry and as much as 70% of the plastic waste it generates isn’t recycled.

Instead, it ends up in landfill.” Unlike many other fields, beauty brands usually create their own materials for products and packaging, which often requires the mixing of plastics. As they cannot be properly broken down, the use of these complex, mixed materials drastically narrows the possibility of most beauty packaging being recycled.

On top of this, the industry also favours the creation of virgin plastics, material made from scratch, over post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic, material that is already in circulation, meaning products and packaging are often both nonrecycled and non-recyclable.

Striking a balance

The problem of sustainability clearly runs far deeper than just throwing empties in the correct bin, and it’s also not the easiest to tackle. “It can be a challenge for skincare brands,” says Medik8’s director of research, Daniel Isaacs. “In cosmetics, there will always be a demand for packaging that is both aesthetically and environmentally pleasing, as it denotes a newness to the cosmetic product.”

Many professional brands are leading the way when it comes to making changes that don’t sacrifice on quality. We take a look at the recent surge of innovation in environmentally friendly beauty packaging, from refill initiatives to eco-charity partnerships, showing that sustainable practice is far from a passing trend. Instead, it is the beginning of a new, necessary status quo for the industry.

IIAA

IIAA’s new recycling scheme for Environ – the skincare brand it distributes – aims to tackle the issue of mixed materials that cause rejection later along the process. “My passion for marine photography and my expeditions to the Arctic have enabled me to see first-hand the devastating impact of plastic pollution in our oceans,” comments IIAA managing director David Alpert on the origins of this initiative. IIAA plans to distribute recycling bins to salons that stock Environ, encouraging them to send back its products free of charge to be repurposed into secondary products by a specialist firm, with £1 given back per empty unit.

“I’ve been working with a parliamentary group to raise awareness of the huge amount of waste the beauty industry produces and the need to implement legislation to reduce it,” Alpert continues. “These changes take time – in the interim, we must all do our bit to ensure a greener future for generations to come.”

IIIA’s own brand Advanced Nutrition Programme (ANP) is also making strides in the field of sustainability. Instead of the plastic pots and pouches used three years ago, the brand now works with recycled cardboard from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)- approved mills with non-toxic vegetable ink.

Point-of-sale displays are now made from recycled acrylic and eco-friendly filler and padding, and paper tape is used to prevent 195km of plastic tape reaching landfill each year. ANP plans to have its packaging and point of sale material completely carbon neutral in the near future.

Caudalie

In 2018, skincare brand Caudalie opened an eco-designed research space focused on green skincare found in the centre of the Cosmetic Valley, called the Research and Natural Formulation laboratory.

A year later, the brand reduced its excess waste by making its plastic packaging lighter, saving more than 13 tonnes of plastic and 33 tonnes of paper.

Tackling the issue of mixed plastics, Caudalie has partnered with Terracycle so that difficult-to-recycle pumps can be dropped off in store and taken to be recycled in betterequipped facilities.

In regards to the future, the brand intends to have all formulas 95–100% natural (except for sun care and fragrances) by 2021 and make all of its packaging, excluding pumps and caps, entirely recyclable by 2022.

Medik8

Medik8’s recent sustainability initiatives began with the ban of pure palm oil from its products in 2017, followed by the removal of three tonnes of plastic from its packaging in 2018. Instead, the brand prints on FSC-certified recycled and recyclable materials using soya ink.

Since 2019, Medik8 has aspired to make its entire range of professional treatments 100% recyclable, including the bottles, caps and pumps they come in. All products are vegan friendly and every professional product in a PET bottle is made from 100% PCR material, such as former drink bottles sourced primarily from the UK to minimise carbon footprint. Additionally, these PCR bottles are designed more ergonomically, meaning an estimated 11% less product is wasted in the bottle.

Medik8 has also revealed its Ocean Plastic Endeavour, under which all future professional packaging will be made from sea and river-sourced plastic waste, as well as reassessing its “ingredient deck” for better knowledge on where its ingredients originate from and their environmental impact, and increasing the amount of recycled glass it uses.

SBC

Since its formation, SBC has focused on keeping packaging as minimal as possible, using 10% post-consumer resin (PCR) packaging that is largely recyclable. These aspirations have remained significant to the brand, which has plans of being 100% recyclable by 2025.

The company is also reducing its distribution of small, one-use plastics by offering larger sizes to clients and salons, including up to five litres of its Hydra-Collagen Moisturising Gel.

Louella Belle

Louella Belle has put a spin on the tried-and-tested recycling scheme by accepting used product bottles from any brand, not just its own.

Launched in January this year, the RecyLeBelle scheme is one of the few to accept gel, nail polish and cuticle oil bottles, as well as plastics with mixed ingredients. All materials will be collected by a recycling company and sorted to ensure they are reused in the best way.

Techs who send off the minimum of four bottles in the pre-paid, eco-friendly Louella Belle envelope will get a 15% discount on their next order.

Outback Organics

Outback Organics is currently running a handful of sustainability-centred offers, including a £2.60 saving when refilling Opal Peelable wax. It has created 10kg and 20kg boxes of Gold and Opal wax to encourage a reduction of single-use bags, meaning up to £46.80 in savings.

“We are very happy with the direction the production and manufacturing of our products is moving in,” says director Steven Wright. “This is slightly trickier with our skincare products as they are bottled off-site, but we are certainly thinking of ways of that can help towards less waste. Only recently, we launched a one litre sized Bush Balm for professional use to reduce the number of smaller bottles being purchased regularly.” For Outback Organics, small changes have big impacts, for instance swapping to biodegradable wet wipes; offering eco-friendly biodegradable travel bags; stocking cotton buds with paper stems only; and using paper tape and biodegradable filler for packaging.

It also openly encourages the upcycling of its packaging, designing products with further use in mind – suggesting that candle pots can be brush holders, Wonder Balm jars can be jewellery holders and massage oils can be flower vases.

Salon System

Salon System has recently made significant changes to its range of products, including updating its Naturalash lash packs to recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) trays and ensuring cartons are made of cardboard. Just Wax products are also now made from PET recyclable plastic.

For its Marvelash range, Salon System has reduced the size of its pack kits and has a recyclable logo appearing on all of these packaging changes.

Nouveau Lashes

Working with a local packaging innovations company in West Yorkshire, Nouveau Lashes changed its retail cartons in August 2019 from Mirri board, a metallised polyester substance containing plastic elements, to a virgin fibre board that is fully recyclable and has FSC certification.

Heading into 2020, Nouveau Lashes has applied this process to its professional products by designing 23 new cartons, with plans to have all of its products changed to virgin fibre board by the end of the year.

Nouveau Lashes’ suppliers also plant three fast-growing spruce trees for every tree cut down, as well as planting extras that are used to help people, wildlife and the environment to thrive.

BC Softwear

The towel, robe and slippers brand has launched the Pledge to the Cleaner Seas Project, promising to remove single-use plastics from a variety of its products.

Changes made include using simple string ties for its flip-flops and changing bags to biodegradable cornstarch. So far, this effort has reduced 50 tonnes of landfill annually.

BC Softwear has also reduced water consumption by 60% by changing its dyeing and rinsing process. Due to the factory’s solar power plant and reduced use of natural gas, the brand has saved more than one million normal and replanted trees in a 28 million-sqm area.

SmartSoft, the brand’s range of sustainable towelling solutions, is designed for hotels with onsite laundry looking to reduce their carbon footprint. A range of products offer up to 70% guaranteed energy savings in laundry energy usage; 65% reduction in oil absorption; and 50% reduction in drying times, meaning better efficiency in staff resources and costs, all of which has been verified by The Laundry and Technology Centre.

Founder and managing director Barbara Cooke comments: “We have gone out of our way to ensure that the SmartSoft collection still offers the softness that is inherent in all our existing ranges, providing a vital combination of both sustainability and luxury.”

Gaia

With bamboo as its principle ingredient – a highly sustainable, 100% biodegradable crop – Gaia is inherently conscious of its environmental impact, from the energy-reducing, artisan methods of creating its products, to using gloves sourced from plant-material and compostable wooden spoons for decanting.

Primarily composed of glass and bamboo, Gaia’s packaging is 100% recyclable, as are its plastic amenities, although an effort to reduce sample sizes and the amount of unnecessary secondary packaging and wrapping is underway too.

Gaia is also encouraging spa partners to adopt sustainability initiatives, offering discounted product refills on returned jars and bottles that are replenished from larger, more cost-effective professional sizes.

Even its central ethos of “buy less but better” is something that encourages clients to practice a minimal and sustainable approach.

Nimue

Skincare brand Nimue offers refills on homecare products so that customers need only buy one full product once, as well as using oxo-biodegradable plastics in its plastic bags. These are designed to break down quickly after the item has reached expiry, much like a leaf.

Aqua Natural

Sugaring brand Aqua Natural is launching a “Refill, Reduce, Reuse” service. Free of charge, clients are encouraged to return empty pots of Aqua Natural sugar paste to be washed, sterilised and eventually reused, a process that is safe and simple due to the product being 100% natural and water-soluble.

Aqua Natural’s co-founder Rosie Khandwala commented: “While we have always ensured that we used recyclable plastic for our jars, we felt we could take it a step further. We have continued to use plastic because we wanted a jar that was safe to microwave, for ease and speed for therapists. It is now about how we use plastic in an eco-friendlier way, not just recycling.”

For each six jars returned (the required minimum), salons will receive a 15% discount on their next Aqua Natural order

Easydry

Easydry uses eco-friendly, compostable bags to package its products and, with all boxes and disposable towels sourced from sustainably managed forests, the Easydry process is FSC certified. It also ships products on specially designed recycled cardboard pallets instead of on wood or plastic.

Voya

Voya prides itself on paying close attention to sustainability, starting with its assembly of ingredients. It hand-harvests its seaweed so as not to damage the delicate marine ecosystem in an effort to preserve Ireland’s reefs by allowing juvenile algae to flourish and grow. Elsewhere, other ingredients are grown without harmful pesticides and fertilisers.

All packaging is recycled, recyclable or biodegradable: boards made from a blend of FSC-certified pulps using Voya’s own harvested seaweed; packaging chips made from 100% biodegradable corn starch; product boxes that are compostable; and water-soluble ink made of vegetable dye.

For 2020, Voya will make its hotel and spa amenities refillable and its Christmas range will be 100% waste free, using reusable items instead of cardboard.

As a member of Repak and World Land Trust, Voya is also making an effort to reduce its carbon footprint. From 2013 to 2017, almost 485 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions associated with Voya had been offset into the protection and restoration of threatened tropical forests and other biologically important habitats.

Aromatherapy Associates

Having recycled 9.4 tonnes of paper, plastic and cardboard, saved 108 trees via the use of recycled paper and generated 11 mega-watt hours of electricity from non-recyclable waste incineration, Aromatherapy Associates (AA) has already contributed significantly to sustainability.

“We source 100% natural ingredients with traceability right back to the farmer and the original source of the essential oil,” says chief executive Anna Teal. “We’re also constantly striving to minimise our carbon footprint, and one key step is to predominantly manufacture in the UK.” The brand uses 40% FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) board across all retail packaging, and its cartons and glass contain up to 40% post-consumer recycled material. AA is also a member of Positive Luxury, a collective that supports like-minded, responsible brands that strive to improve sustainability.

Moving forward, the brand is investigating ways to reduce or remove virgin plastic from its packaging and to increase the amount of post-consumer recycled material in its high-density polyethylene (HDPE) recyclable tubes and bottles. Another aspiration is achieving 100% certified sustainable palm oil in its products, meaning zero net deforestation. “We will continue to drive this message and make sustainability and transparency an industry standard,” Teal adds.

Comfort Zone

Currently, 59% of Comfort Zone’s primary, secondary and tertiary packaging is made from recycled materials; 44% of its plastic packaging is either bio-based or recycled; and 86.5% of its paper and cardboard packaging is made from recycled materials.

Addressing sustainability issues that arise with production, the brand uses a carbon-neutral manufacturing facility that uses CO2-equivalent emissions mitigation to reduce pollution significantly.

Comfort Zone also supports non-profit organisation EthioTrees, which regenerates soil and forests and helps local farming communities gain access to drinking water in Ethiopia.

Sea Magik

Skincare brand Sea Magik has made a number of changes to its sustainability practices, recently replacing plastic with glass and aluminium; moving to carbon-neutral bio plastic made from sugarcane for any required plastic products; reducing plastic content in its salt pouches by 25% and moving to single-use plastic over mixed; replacing plastic lids with caps made from recycled wood; and advertising responsible recycling practices with advice on the packaging.

PB