Guide: Sourcing smart packaging and materials

Sustainable packaging design starts with material choices. Sustainable packaging reduces the amount of materials used, contains recycled content, and can be recycled again.

The most comprehensive method for determining the most sustainable packaging design is to do a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCAs are used to identify the environmental risks of existing and planned products, services and manufacturing processes as well as identify strategic improvement opportunities. This can be an expensive and timely undertaking but will give you the greatest insight. If a full LCA isn’t an option, you can turn to our Materials Hierarchy below for a general guide.

Leading with packaging design

Packaging design is a critical step toward sustainability in beauty. Designing sustainable packaging requires us to think ahead to the packaging end-of-life. Typically, beauty packaging’s end of life falls under one of the following:

  • Reuse / Refill: Reuse and refill models are the gold standard for beauty packaging. When a user is done with the product, the packaging is either returned to the producer to be sanitized and refilled, or the user refills it themselves. When executed effectively, these models minimize waste in beauty packaging.

  • Compost: Compostable materials are designed for home composting or industrial composting facilities. Unfortunately, curbside industrial composting programs that accept packaging are currently only accessible to a small fraction of users (you can learn more about access here).

  • Recycling: Most beauty packaging cannot be recycled by curbside programs. Packaging that is smaller than a yogurt cup, is flexible (like squeezable tubes), or made with mixed materials are all highly unlikely to be recycled through traditional systems.

  • Landfill: Landfills and pollution are the inevitable ends for much of our beauty packaging. Even those materials that promise to be compostable, recyclable, or sustainably designed often end up as waste.

Packaging end-of-life is largely determined by the materials used.

Beauty products have various packaging needs. It is impossible for us to say what is best for your products, but the following guide may help you make sense of the complicated world of packaging materials.

Metal

  • Aluminum is highly recyclable. Aluminum cans/jars/bottles have a high market value and are likely to get recycled by curbside programs.

  • Make sure consumers know that aluminum tubes can be recycled but must be empty and balled up, not flattened.

  • Stainless steel is highly recyclable.

  • One complication is that some aluminum packaging designs render them difficult to recycle, like aluminum tubes that are too small for curbside recycling programs or are mixed materials.

  • Watch out for metal layering with plastic.

Glass

  • Glass is infinitely recyclable in theory. However, most glass will only get recycled once before being downcycled to a product like asphalt or ending up in the trash.

  • PCR (already recycled) glass is a good option.

  • Soda-lime glass (the most prevalent type of glass) is recyclable.

  • The glass used for vials and droppers (aka, Borosilicate or extruded (type 1 glass) cannot be recycled.

  • Tops for glass containers are often not recyclable. Use of PVC, BPA, or PFAS coatings inside caps should be avoided.

Plastic

  • Some plastics are highly recyclable and have a high market value:

    • Plastic #1: Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) can be readily recycled in most curbside programs.

    • Plastic #2: High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) can be readily recycled in most curbside programs.

  • Other plastics are difficult or impossible to recycle and become garbage or pollution:

    • Plastic #5: Polypropylene (PP) is rarely recycled, but pressure from the sustainability community leads us to believe it may be soon (stay tuned).

    • Plastic #3: Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC OR V); Plastic #4: Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE); Plastic #6: Polystyrene (PS); and Plastic #7: Mixed (Other) are unlikely or impossible to be recycled.

    • Mixing plastics often means they are no longer able to be recycled. If one type of plastic is sprayed over a different type of plastic, it is considered a mixed plastic and not recyclable.

Paper and fiber

  • Paper products can be highly recyclable as long as mixed materials are avoided.

  • Paper made from 100% post-consumer recycled materials or next generation fibers (e.g. agricultural residues, such as wheat straw) should be prioritized.

  • Fiber (paper, bamboo, hemp, wood) can be a good plastic alternative when sourced using non-harmful practices to our forests (e.g. avoiding using fiber from ancient and endangered forests).

  • When virgin paper or fiber is necessary, it should be FSC certified.

Bio-based (PLA)

  • Bio-plastic or microbial synthesized starch (PLA) is not recyclable in curbside programs and therefore is a big contaminant in recycling streams. PCR plastic is probably preferable to PLA.

  • PLA may be accepted at select industrial composting facilities, but since PLA is harder to break down than food scraps, it is not desired by most composting facilities.

  • Some bio-based plastics are chemically equivalent to the petro-based plastic types and can be recycled with corresponding types using the same plastics number guide.

  • Bio-based plastics are not always 100% plant-derived. Some are 100% plant-derived, where others can be as much as 70% petro-based and only 30% plant-derived.

Compostables

  • Compostable packaging has the potential to transform via decomposition into biomass and thus avoid becoming waste in the long term.

  • Compostable packaging is most likely only compostable through industrial facilities - not in backyard compost bins. Since curbside industrial composting is still rare, much of this packaging will end up in the landfill regardless.

  • Compostable packaging cannot breakdown via decomposition in a landfill.

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Guide: Designing better beauty and wellness packaging