Green Face of Packaging – Sustainability Issues of the Cosmetic Industry Packaging

Abstract

Packaging is a steadily growing industry that faces many challenges as well. Ever growing consumer expectations, though competition, technological advances don’t come even close to the huge issue of sustainability within the industry. Packaging for the beauty industry is dependable on the looks more than any other with massive changes in the recent years since extensive grooming became a part both genders lifestyle today and spreading those standards across the globe. The global cosmetic packaging market was valued at USD 25.9 billion in 2018 and is expected grow 4.8% in the next 5 years flying high on the innovative package designs, increasing demand for cosmetics focused on the middle class and youth as well as e-commerce. The first stepping stone is that more than half of the materials used for the massive cosmetic industry packaging are plastics. Finding alternatives and making a shift to a greener and circular way will be a challenge in the years to come.

Use of Waste from the Food Industry and Applications of the Fermentation Process to Create Sustainable Cosmetic Products: A Review

“…According to the European Strategy for plastics in a circular economy introduced by the European Commission, all plastic packaging must be 100% recyclable (or reusable) and 55% should be recycled by 2030 [49]. To make packaging more sustainable, it should have an increased recycling rate, based on the effective amount of plastic waste turned into secondary plastics [46][47][48][49][50]. Another solution in terms of alternative packaging is the use of bio-based materials derived from bamboo, seaweed, corn starch, mushroom fibres, and avocado nuts [51].…”

Environmental impact of increased soap consumption during COVID-19 pandemic: Biodegradable soap production and sustainable packaging

“…According to various formulas applied to manufacture products, soap packaging materials have been engineered to adequately protect soap during distribution, storage, sale, shipping, and use. Paper, waxed papers, aluminum, and, to some extent, a film such as biaxially oriented polypropylene, polyethylene glycol coated paper, low-density polyethylene, cellophane, and other materials have been used as packaging materials ( Drobac et al, 2020 ; Malik et al, 2017 ). The analysis of the municipal solid waste demonstrated that containers and packaging waste accounted for 82.2 million tons of the total waste produced in 2018 ( Anon, 2021b ).…”

Towards Sustainable Color Cosmetics Packaging

“…There is also increasing consumer interest in sustainable packaging and plastic-free cosmetics [18][19][20]. Large cosmetics companies have set up impressive goals for packaging [21], and several cases are mentioned in the scientific [22][23][24][25][26][27][28] and trade [20,[29][30][31][32][33][34] literature. Yet, popular brands typically do not offer sustainably packaged color cosmetics, leading to "consumer helplessness in this regard, and a belief that changes should be led by cosmetics producers and government regulatory action" [35].…”

“…Globalization helped create large cosmetics multinational corporations (MNCs) which often off-shored production and manufacturing facilities to developing economies [27]. Companies such as L'Oreal acquired Helena Rubenstein, while Unilever acquired Rimmel and Faberge, and Revlon bought Max Factor and Almay.…”

“…Large cosmetics companies with sufficient clout to ensure adherence to terms by suppliers could outsource packaging to China, and at times, this had a substantial impact on the business models of cosmetics packaging producers in countries such as Turkey [49]. Nevertheless, products sold in specific markets required localization, and in many markets, western products have since been replaced by local, traditional ones [27]. Established companies may find it difficult to develop and implement new technological solutions and often use third-party collaboration with NGOs and other companies, followed by a scale-up [26].…”