For the sake of our oceans and its inhabitants, plastic free beauty brands are on the rise as more take action to ensure beauty is unharmful and sustainable.
Every year on June 8th, World Oceans Day takes place to inform people on the preventable damage we cause to our oceans. As the beauty industry currently produces more than 120 billion units of packaging, with the majority being plastic, plastic free beauty is absolutely vital.
Nearly 80% of plastic waste goes is never recycled, meaning former industry norms of plastic packaging must change in order for consumers to shop responsibly and sustainably. The United Nations created World Oceans Day to encourage proactive change that will save our oceans from further harm, as while we cannot reverse the damage already done, we can certainly make sure we don’t continue making it worse.
This year World Oceans Day is focused on Life and Livelihoods, shedding light on ‘the wonder of the ocean and how it is our life source, supporting humanity and every other organism on Earth’. The next 10 years are vital to creating sustainable changes to connect ocean science with the needs of society, ensuring the current supply and demand chain doesn’t sacrifice our oceans.
Many beauty brands are incorporating the 3R approach – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – to their production lines to remove new plastic production and unnecessary waste. All proactive changes are welcome, however the brands below are the ones leading the way by demonstrating how plastic free beauty is possible.
All BeautyPro sheet masks are plastic free. The masks degrade after 75 days. They are made with FSC approved materials, meaning they are made with forest-based materials that use reclaimed sources.
The BeautyPro sachets are part of a plastic recycling programme which aims to repurpose plastic and reduce the idea of waste. Their packaging uses paper tape and paper infill, and they plant 192 trees every month to combat deforestation and reduce their carbon footprint.
Blind Barber is certified Plastic Neutral by rePurpose Global, meaning every purchase now carries a Net Zero Plastic Footprint. The men’s grooming brand also donates a percentage from every product sale to vetted programs that collect and recycle as much plastic waste from the environment as it uses in packaging and operations until it becomes a 100% plastic free beauty brand.
Ecooking packaging is entirely recyclable. Plus, it uses corn for its packing filling, meaning it’s easily recycled with water.
All of Urtekram’s packaging is plant-based and made of sugar cane plastic. Sugar cane plastic is a renewable raw material absorbing CO2 from the air. By using a renewable resource, it means for every ton of sugar cane used, two tons of CO2 are composed from the air.
The vegan beauty brand uses less conventional plastic to care for the environment but also to care for you as the self-preserving packaging won’t spoil.
Beauty Brands Supporting the Ocean
In addition to the above plastic free beauty brands, there is a number of other brands supporting ocean sustainability through charity partnerships and their own initiatives.
Since February 2021, Hawkins & Brimble has partnered with the Marine Conservation Society to remove single use plastic from its products. The grooming brand has a range of sustainable products and is in the process of repackaging its best-selling products into eco-refill aluminium bottles, with 100% recyclable pouches to refill them.
Lancaster has declared its commitment to being a clean and ocean friendly brand since becoming an ambassador of Riviera Eden. Its ocean friendly formulas are non-toxic for marine life with a selection of sun filters providing the same level of skin safety.
Plus, Lancaster packaging contains post-consumer recycled material while their folding boxes are made with paper from responsible sources to help reduce environmental impact.
Urban Veda uses 100% recyclable packaging and its bottles are made from post-consumer recycled plastics. Like BeautyPro, the brand uses FSC approved materials for its cartons. Moving forward with new release, Urban Veda has pledged to use materials such as aluminium and glass to prevent more new plastic entering the environment.
It’s promising to watch plastic free beauty (slowly but surely) become a norm. Seeing how quickly the beauty industry has adapted to the demand for conscious and sustainable beauty in recent years gives us hope it won’t take much longer for this list to be a lot longer.
