Beauty treatments are very important because they bring us relaxation and give relief to our tired skin. But did you know that most of the cosmetics you use are harming the environment? But there are ways to help! What are they?
Our beauty treatments should be relaxing and our cosmetics should smell good. The things we keep in the bathroom are supposed to encourage us to stay in this place, which after a hard day becomes our oasis and home spa.
Unfortunately, our home spa can cost our planet Earth a lot. From plastic packaging filling landfills, to cosmetic chemicals running down the drain and disrupting marine life. Our habits and beauty routine can have a huge impact on the environment. By making a few changes, we can help improve our planet. By giving up wet face wipes, we can save marine wildlife because the plastic in the wipes does not break down.
More and more cosmetic brands are innovating by releasing cosmetics in recyclable packaging.
Considering that 80 billion plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles are thrown away around the world every year, it’s easy to see why we need a change here. Brands are increasingly turning to solid bars to significantly reduce waste on three fronts. First, they’re reducing packaging consumption. Lush’s Naked bars leave zero residue, while others, such as Ethique and the new Garnier Shampoo, use only a small amount of recyclable FSC-certified cardboard packaging.
Second, they reduce water consumption because they use water to foam up where you shower. Third, they save emissions because they weigh much less than shampoo and conditioner bottles and take up much less space when transported. This makes it an easy change with a huge environmental benefit!
There’s no denying that facial wipes are very convenient, but their cost to the environment is appalling. In the UK alone, 11 billion wet wipes are used every year – most of which end up in the garbage can (and therefore landfill) or flushed down the toilet (and end up in the oceans). Water UK has revealed that wipes make up 93% of sewer blocks, while a macabre phenomenon called fatbergs (floating piles of clotted waste, including facial tissues and sanitary ware) has built up in our rivers.
If you haven’t heard of PCR plastic (aka post-consumer recycled plastic), you’re about to hear about it and see it! Beauty brands are realizing that creating packaging out of virgin plastic when so much is already wasted is madness. That’s why brands like UK-based REN are leading the way by making good use of existing plastics. Their Ocean Plastic bottles use materials collected from oceans, rivers, riverbanks and beaches. The compromise is a slight gray hue (which makes each bottle unique) because the bottles carry over some of the color from a previous life. So when buying cosmetics, pay attention to what kind of packaging they come in.
It seems obvious, but there’s no point switching to recyclable beauty products if you don’t put them in the right container afterwards. A study by Recycle Now found that while we’re pretty good at recycling our kitchen waste (90% of kitchen packaging is recycled), we lag behind in our bathrooms, where only 50% of packaging is recycled
Read also 9 skincare trends that will reign in 2021
Main photo: cottonbro/ pexels.com
