The world of beauty is innovating and becoming more and more committed to the environment. Today, any brand wishing to be part of the "clean beauty" category must be aligned from the start of production to the end of the product life with responsible packaging, with minimal impact. Materials must be recycled AND recyclable, and from this point of view glass and aluminum have considerable environmental advantages over plastic. A quick overview of clean beauty generation packaging.
Ecological packaging: less plastic!
Beauty product packaging is still not recycled enough today because it is too small or made up of several materials that cannot be separated. Beauty brands must question themselves and innovate to find new containers. The first objective: use less plastic by lightening the packs, by giving up over-packaging or by changing the material. Then, if there is plastic, it must be recycled AND recyclable in order to minimize the use of primary plastic as much as possible. Indeed, plastic is made from petroleum by-products: its energy-intensive manufacturing pollutes, but above all, plastic is proliferating in nature and negatively impacts all ecosystems. Plastic is the scourge of the environment, so it is urgent to do without it as much as possible. Some products are now sold "naked" like cut soaps for example, or in cardboard boxes, especially for so-called zero waste beauty, including shampoos and solid care products. Others choose 100% PCR for “Post Consumer Recycled”, i.e. a material recycled after consumer use, which can be the case for plastic, glass or aluminum.
Aluminum, plastic, glass and life cycles
No material is perfect from an environmental point of view, and there is no such thing as a zero footprint. But each material has advantages and disadvantages. To make its choice, a brand will study the impact of the packaging throughout its life cycle, i.e. from its design to its destruction after use. From this point of view, all emit CO2 during their production, which is difficult to quantify. On the other hand, in terms of transport, we know that glass is very heavy, and therefore more polluting than aluminum, which is very light. In addition, aluminum does not break if it falls on the bathroom tiles: it naturally finds its place on the edge of the bathtub. Plastic, for its part, has many advantages during the use of the product, but a very negative impact upstream (chemical production), and downstream (polluting incineration, fragmentation in nature, residual microplastics, etc.). The ideal for a product range is therefore to vary the materials to best adapt them to the product, and to its use by finding compromises to be as virtuous as possible.
Aluminum, defects and qualities
Faced with the necessary changes to be made to their industry, clean beauty brands were the first to (re)discover the benefits of aluminum: it does not break, it is hygienic, it is opaque which is useful for preserving formulas, it is light, but above all it is infinitely recyclable! In addition, it can be made into refillable cans. Aluminum makes it possible to create almost single-material packaging with easy recycling by unscrewing the pump from a bottle for example. This almost absolute recyclability is a huge advantage that compensates for its disadvantages. Where glass is greedy in water and sand to be manufactured, where plastic requires chemical resources, toxic adjuvants and oil, the production of aluminum requires the extraction of minerals including bauxite in mines that degrade the surrounding ecosystems, and results from highly polluting chemical manufacturing processes. Non-biodegradable like plastic, it becomes interesting when it is recycled since its defects mainly come from its production. Thus, infinitely recyclable identically, aluminum becomes the most suitable material for clean beauty, making it possible to do without plastic for bottles but also cream tubes.
100% PCR Aluminum, the sustainable choice
Unlike plastic, which loses its properties (flexibility, transparency, resistance, etc.) over the course of recycling and requires the addition of virgin plastic, "Post Consumer Recycled" aluminum can be recycled infinitely, making it a sustainable material. However, be careful not to confuse it with "polyfoil" aluminum, which can make up certain very flexible tubes thanks to the accumulation of various layers, sometimes including plastic. Indeed, polyfoil (multilayer in French) is in no way recyclable since the different materials are inseparable, which can even constitute a certain greenwashing by suggesting that it is clean packaging. Conversely, a pack can be made of 100% recycled aluminum, its use not altering any of its properties. But what makes recycled aluminum truly clean is its recycling, which requires very few resources compared to its initial manufacturing process. Most of the aluminum manufactured in the past is still in circulation today, which makes PCR aluminum the most sustainable material possible and the most suited to the values of clean beauty. Discover the Baume Métamorphose and the Eau de Nacre Isotonique NACRE ECLAT, or the Huile Lavante Relipidante and the Soin Emollient Kerato-réducteur XERO NACRE: all these BLUE SKINCARE treatments are packaged in 100% PCR aluminum tubes or bottles.
In the land of packaging, nothing is perfect, but as brands seek to meet the ecological demands of better-informed consumers, solutions are emerging. And amidst all the improvements and innovations, recycled aluminum is a top performer with a very good average over its entire life cycle. And that's good, because aluminum tubes with an old-fashioned or minimalist look, and pretty refillable aluminum bottles are very trendy in the bathroom!
