Sustainable packaging - the ins and outs

By Dominika Minarovic, Co-founder, BYBI

ustainable packaging, what does it mean to you? Low carbon? Fully recyclable? No singleuse cellophane or seals? Or the ability to reuse something like for like and close the loop? At BYBI, it means all of the above. We create skin positive, pro-planet skincare and our unique approach to packaging has become a really important part of our brand.

We created an internal auditing system, The Susty Score, that grades the material and ingredients we use based on the associated carbon footprint. In relation to packaging, it also takes into account the material’s afterlife (less to landfill = less greenhouse gas emissions) and helps us determine what we use: sugarcane polyethylene, aka the carbonneutral material we use for our tubes. It looks and feels like plastic, it is lightweight, durable, malleable AND fully recyclable. Yet, it’s a unique bioplastic -an upcycled material from the sugar industry! The sugarcane plant is crushed for its highly concentrated sugar juice that’s used for human consumption, at which point it’s usually discarded, despite the fact that it still has subsequent crushings of weaker sugar that can’t be used for consumption. It is this substance that is used to produce ethanol, and in turn, a fossil-fuel free plastic.

For everything we’re unable to house in bioplastic, we opt for glass, which has its pros and cons. It’s infinitely recyclable and not a fossil-fuel based material (pro), but when created as a virgin material, it’s actually very energy intensive and it’s made from sand which is not a renewable source (con). To help close the loop, we created ReBYBI, a circular recycling scheme for our glass packaging. UK customers can return their empty bottles, pots and jars for free, to be used like for like. This reduces carbon emissions by not only saving virgin materials from being used, but also prevents glass from entering the energy intensive recycling process.

First impressions are everything right? Order from bybi.com and your products will arrive in a grasspaper box. It’s a seriously sustainable material that requires up to 80% less energy to produce than conventional wood pulp (cardboard), saving approximately 4.8 tonnes of carbon and 3,000 litres of water per tonne produced. Plus, it can be easily recycled alongside cardboard.

To avoid using single-use plastic labels, we print directly onto both glass and bioplastic, using biodegradable plant-based inks that don’t interfere with the recycling process. You also won’t find cellophane or tamper seals on any BYBI product, not standard practice in beauty, but we believe they’re unnecessary and only contribute to landfill.

Our major challenges when it comes to sustainable packaging have focused on availability and cost. Typically, lower carbon materials have been harder to source and more expensive, although the demand for innovation and competitive pricing increases every day.

Image: bybi.com

Find out more about BYBI at bybi.com.