SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS
Recycling plastic the natural way NATURES ORGANICS EXPLAINS ITS JOURNEY TO PRODUCING PRODUCTS MADE FROM 100 PER CENT RECYCLED PLASTIC.
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t’s been a steep learning curve since personal care manufacturer Natures Organics launched in 1981. With a focus on plant-based ingredients and pioneering environmentally responsible formulations, Natures Organics has had to make tough decisions in its manufacturing of products such as laundry liquids, floor and surface cleaners and body wash. With recycled plastic pellets expensive and difficult to source, the company began using recycled plastics around 10 years ago. The bold move was no easy decision, as Natures Organics found it difficult to swap out virgin plastic stock for recycled plastic pellets. Over the past decade, technical modifications allowed it to produce 100 per cent recycled PET in its products and the company has since led the way in maintaining this structure. As an Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation member within the co-regulatory body’s membership of more than 1400 members, Natures Organics has already matched and exceeded the voluntary 2025 National Packaging Targets. It is now encouraging more businesses to use its resources and networks to meet the targets. In recent years, Natures Organics has been able to match the
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Natures Organics has exceeded the voluntary 2025 National Packaging Targets.
sustainability of its packaging in line with its original environmental goals. For many brands, changing the look of a product is usually a marketing strategy. However, when Natures Organics redesigned the bottles of its Organic Care range in early 2019, the purpose was environmental. Natures Organics uses pellets of Australian recycled plastics to mould and blow all of the bottles for its nine brands of liquid products. Nowadays nearly all of the 43 million bottles the company produces a year, across a range of 130 products, are made from 100 per cent recycled plastic. Likewise, every plastic is 100 per cent recyclable. “We call it bottles from bottles – which is very important in a sector that still relies heavily on bottles and containers made from virgin
plastic derived from petroleum,” says Nancy Clay, Commercial Manager of Natures Organics. Natures Organics is well aware that the relationship between consumers and plastic is souring. In saying that, the company acknowledges the challenges of finding a practical alternative for liquid products as they are generally advantageous over glass and metal across price, flexibility, weight and durability. “I think the push from Australian consumers is that they don’t want plastic at all, especially after seeing the War on Waste. Many consumers want plastic free options,” Nancy says. “Unfortunately in our space that is not easy or practical to implement.” The Melbourne-based manufacturer recently found a solution to coloured, dark or black plastics in their plantbased hair and skin products that were difficult for materials recovery facilities to detect. In response, the company stripped out pigments and moved to clear bottles allowing them to be passed through the recycling stream. Nancy says the latest modification is just another step along a sometimes unpredictable road to more sustainable packaging. It hasn’t always been a smooth ride for Natures Organics with the company encountering difficulties in some areas of its packaged products. New technical challenges arose when Nature Organics produced large bottles requiring handles for
