Sustainability & Cosmetic Packaging:
The Inconvenient Truth; An Unconventional Opportunity

End of life may be the biggest challenge facing our industry.

By John Delfausse,
vice president global package development and chief environmental officer, Estée Lauder corporate packaging; executive committee member Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC); and a member of Beauty Packaging’s board of advisors.

Reduce—Reuse—Recycle: The environmental paragon for decades is now the key phrase heard in the world of sustainability. In the world of beauty, however, the fact of life for packaging is as far as you can get from these three R’s.

Reduce?

When was the last time you heard your marketing partners tell you to make the package smaller or your design team tell you to make the package simple and without fitments and fancy two- or three-piece caps? All of course which need to be made from special engineered plastics that are plated or metallized or need to be crystal clear?

In the cosmetic industry, we love our fancy packages, and we want to maximize our shelf impact and display panels as much as possible.

Reuse?

What percentage of your products offers a refill to your customer? Do we even want our customers taking a chance with reusing a package that may get compromised during use?

Recycle?

Are you kidding? Most residential recycling programs will only take PET or HDPE plastic bottles, and they really only take soda, water, milk and detergent bottles. Yes, glass is generally collected, but what about all the other stuff we make? Jars, tubes, compacts, piston packages, lipstick cases, mascaras, setup boxes, thermoform platforms… . I could go on and on.

Even if we sell our lotions and toners in HDPE and PET bottles, there is very little chance that they will be recognized as such. The recycling industry doesn’t know if they are PET or PVC, and if you have ever been to a recycling facility, you know they don’t look at those SPI codes on the bottom
of our bottles.

Unfortunately we are not in the soda pop business. That would be nice. They package their product in glass bottles, PET bottles and aluminum cans—all very highly recycled, and materials that can be readily reused as recycled content in their packaging.

Frustrated Yet? Don’t Be

The fun part of this whole challenge is the creative and innovative opportunity that is represented here for all designers, developers, engineers and suppliers in our industry.

If you know anything about cradle-to-cradle design, you will understand that we shouldn’t have to give up our fancy materials and heavy wall packaging to be sustainable.

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) defines sustainable packaging as packaging that:

– Is beneficial, safe & healthy for individuals and communities throughout its life cycle:
– Meets market criteria for performance and cost;
– Is sourced, manufactured, transported, and recycled using renewable energy;
– Maximizes the use of renewable or recycled source materials;
– Is manufactured using clean production technologies and best practices;
– Is made from materials healthy in all probable end-of-life scenarios;
– Is physically designed to optimize materials and energy;
– Is effectively recovered and utilized in biological and/or industrial cradle-to-cradle cycles.

Basically, if we can design our packaging so that we use either renewable resource materials that can be recycled or composted at the end of life, or man-made materials that can be recycled continually, while using renewable energy during all life cycle phases, we can have our cake and eat it, too.

Don’t get me wrong—reducing the amount of packaging you use and the processes you go through will not only have a favorable environmental impact, but be a cost savings as well. Because we do not live in a perfect cradle-to-cradle world, material weight has a large impact throughout the entire life cycle on your package’s environmental footprint. This affects raw material sourcing, manufacturing, transportation and end-of-life impacts.

You say it can’t be done? You would be more correct to say it is not easily done.

Today there are many paperboard options that not only have recycled content, but also use pulp that is certified to be sustainably harvested. Many of them are also made using renewable energy. Look for carton suppliers that are using renewable energy to convert these boards to folding cartons. The list is growing every day. And paper is a renewable source and easily recycled. Just stay away from those nasty plastic laminates. There are alternatives.

Metals such as steel and aluminum are highly recycled. Aluminum with recycled content of up to 80% is available for matte and satin anodized parts or for bright parts that are buffed and lacquered. You just need to know how to build your package so that the metal can be recovered once the package has been used.

Plastics and other engineered materials and components are a bigger problem. However, if you are inventive and resourceful, you can find many materials with high recycled content, such as PET, HDPE, PP, HIS, etc.

Glass is not only highly recyclable, but also has recycled content in every bottle and jar. There are also manufacturers who now add post consumer, recycled content to their process.

The bigger challenge is the issue of recycling cosmetic packaging, or as I ask my developers, “What is your consumer going to do with your package after the product is used?”

End of life, as discussed above, is a challenge for our industry. However, I believe there are answers with the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility, sometimes called Product Stewardship. Since we design our packaging, and know what the materials are, we have the best chance of using them if we ourselves collect them.Believe me—don’t wait around for the recycling industry to start collecting PCTA or Surlyn.

Cosmetic companies need to start looking for opportunities to engage their customer on the subject of returning packaging for recycling. I believe that if the industry will work together to set up the infrastructure, the consumer will respond. I also believe that the burden and cost of recovery needs to be shared with the consumer and that the price they pay should include recovery costs. This will require retailer and brand owner cooperation across all brands. But if we can achieve this, we will have come a long way to achieving our goal on sustainability.

Development of sustainable packaging is a journey and will not be accomplished quickly or easily. The key is to get started on even a single leg of the SPC definition and make continuous improvements as you are able.

I look forward to the day when we build responsible packaging that our customers can’t wait to pick up and experience, and that add value for them, our companies, and the communities where we live and work.

Join Beauty Packaging’s Board of Advisors on May 21 at 11am, at Luxe Pack NY, for
a session entitled “Creating Brand Loyalty.” More info: www.luxepacknewyork.com