Pollution from Beauty Products : Packaging

Have you ever sat through a youtube video or an Instagram post of a Youtube vlogger or social media influencer unboxing a beauty product? All the suspense and frilly decorations that lure us to click checkout on Sephora or Zalora…but let’s look beyond the beautiful product within and what do you see? Unnecessary plastic waste in the form of plastic envelopes, bubble wrap, cellophane, polystyrene, plastic bottles…and the list goes on. Many of these items aren’t recyclable, and most of them will only end up in our oceans.

From the previous post, we know that annually, the beauty industry earns approximately $500 billion dollars (Rai, 2019). With this booming amount, we know that millions and billions of beauty products are being sold each year. These beauty products which include makeup, skincare, body care and more requires elaborate and flexible packaging. More often than not, the packaging material used is plastic. Our favourite beauty products, from shampoo to lipsticks, are poisoning the ocean.

Plastic inside a dead whale found in Philippine shores

This is because what’s left of the product that we do not use, or the product residue, are inevitably washed down drains and the packaging is thrown in the trash, making its way out to sea at astounding rates, as evident from many images of marine life suffering from these consequences. Gentle marine animals like whales are directly being affected by plastic pollutions (Robinson, 2019), and sensitive coral reefs are increasing being bleached because of the same reason (Becatoros, 2017).

The recent occurrences of disturbing images of ocean devastation and marine life suffering have driven many to adopt metal straws and reusable bags… but why are we not ‘greening’ our beauty industry?

The beauty industry’s exact part of the pie of plastic pollution is unknown, but we can only imagine how big the slice is. When we dispose of compacts, containers, and lipstick tubes, we are essentially contributing to the pileup of unrecyclable plastics in landfills. According to Zero Waste Europe, the beauty industry reportedly creates approximately 120 billion units of packaging every year (Diaz, 2019), one of the fastest-growing sectors alongside healthcare, of the nearly one trillion dollar packaging industry (Smithers, n.d.).

Additionally, because of the growth potential of the beauty industry, brands now are increasingly competitive. Hence, they may look into making their packaging as ‘aesthetic’ and attractive as possible to attract potential customers. The beauty industry’s purpose is obviously making things (more specifically, us), prettier anyway – so what more its packaging?

Read more about the beauty industry’s efforts to mitigate this problem here.

References

Rai, V. (2019, December 28). Unseen 2019: The ugly side of beauty waste. Retrieved October 23, 2020, from https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/unseen-2019-the-ugly-side-of-beauty-waste-11577446070730.html

Robinson, M. (2019). Dead whale found with 40 kilograms of plastic bags in its stomach. [online] CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/18/asia/dead-whale-philippines-40kg-plastic-stomach-intl-scli/index.html [Accessed 2 Nov. 2020].

Becatoros, E. (2017). More than 90 percent of world’s coral reefs will die by 2050. The Independent. [online] 13 Mar. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/environment-90-percent-coral-reefs-die-2050-climate-change-bleaching-pollution-a7626911.html.

Diaz, T. (2019). Everything You Need To Know About Recycling Makeup. [online] www.refinery29.com. Available at: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/how-to-recycle-old-makeup-containers [Accessed 2 Nov. 2020].‌

Smithers (n.d.). Smithers forecasts global flexible packaging market to $269 billion by 2024. [online] Smithers. Available at: https://www.smithers.com/resources/2019/jun/global-packaging-market-to-reach-$269-b-by-2024 [Accessed 2 Nov. 2020].

Eliza Dawn

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