INSIDE
SUSTAINABLE BEAUTY
Beauty’s Green Revolution How brands are helping the planet in response to increasingly eco-conscious consumers’ demands By Seth Mendelson
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hat’s on the outside is just as important as the inside. That’s the message that more and more consumers are sending to the mass-market beauty industry. They applaud manufacturer efforts to clean up formulas, eliminating potentially toxic ingredients. Now the focus shifts to packaging with a clarion call for sustainability. The personal care/beauty category is among one of the most serious packing-waste offenders, according to many industry officials. Consumers tend to recycle grocery containers, but toss shampoos and other personal care items in their garbage bins. Even if they do recycle, many of the products have decorations on them that must be scrubbed off to be accepted at recycling centers. The industry is on a path to contribute 12 billion tons of plastic to landfills by 2050, according to the Sea Education Foundation. “Nonrecyclable packaging is the biggest issue in sustainable beauty with over 120 billion units [of] packaging produced annually on a global level,” said Stacey Levine, director of brand marketing at Brooklynbased Eva NYC, citing information from Marketing Tech’s 2020 insights. “Plus, only 9% of plastics actually get recycled,” she said, citing additional information from Unenvironment.org. Citing a November 2018 Futerra study, Levine noted that 88% of consumers want brands to help them be more sustainable and ethical, yet 43% said they believe
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brands are actually making it harder. The situation is exacerbated by the multitude of single-use plastics in samples that have traditionally been used in beauty product trials. The usage bumped up during COVID as in-store testers were sealed up. Mirroring the challenges of “clean” formulas, sustainable packaging faces hurdles of its own. While brands might call their containers “recyclable,” the hard facts are many people are not compliant. That is ushering a call to look at other solutions, ranging from materials made out of ingredients like mushrooms, plantable packaging, packaging that dissolves or no outside packaging at all. Reusable and refillable containers also are moving to the forefront. Shoppers will reward the brands taking a stand. According to a survey conducted by New York-based Bazaarvoice, 84% of respondents said they believe brands have a responsibility to “protect people and the planet” by offering sustainable initiatives. While 86% indicated they would buy a product from a new brand that is sustainable over remaining loyal to their usual brand. Further support for the movement comes from New York-based trendspotter Spate. Searches for sustainability tracked by Spate have increased 18.5% year-over-year from 2018 to now. “Brands have been able to mostly ignore the need for more sustainable practices for years because the consumer was not demanding it,” noted Brooke Harvey-Taylor,
founder of Carpinteria, Calif-based Pacifica. “However, now as the consumer becomes more invested in their own health and the practices of the brands they purchase from, companies are finally forced to make this sustainable shift. In 2021, customers do not want to purchase products from brands that don’t reflect their values.” The pandemic hastened consumer demand for products to help them live healthier, but also more meaningful lives. “We are seeing that environmental concerns and the link between health and products applied to the skin have been increasingly top of mind for consumers. The pandemic seems to have accelerated these attitudes and are driving
May 2021 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM
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