For the first time, a cosmetics company has announced it will be using recyclate derived from post-consumer waste in the manufacture of the packaging of its beauty products.
cosnova Beauty, based in Sulzbach, Germany, said it will be switching from virgin material to Interseroh’s Procyclen, for the caps of its essence lip gloss products, extreme shine volume lip gloss, reducing the amount of material used by some 25 percent.
In addition, the company is launching its new Catrice nail polish vials and two concealer products with caps made from Procyclen. The caps do not come into contact with the product contents, said the company.
The cosmetics firm is aiming to raise awareness about the importance of recycling for the environment, said Axel Geiger, Executive Expert Purchase & Packaging at cosnova.
“cosnova is a trendsetter, and that includes the field of sustainable packaging design,” he said. “By increasing the use of recycled materials in our product packaging, we want to contribute to reducing the use of new plastic.”
Studies conducted by the Fraunhofer UMSICHT Institute, have revealed that transitioning to Procyclen yields a 54 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emission, compared with the use of new material. Its use in an application like this one also sends an important signal to the market. While no legal standards have yet been agreed regarding the use of PCR in the cosmetics industry that is derived from plastic, metal and composite packaging materials collected in the Yellow Bag under Germany’s waste collection system, this initiative demonstrates what is technically possible.
“The formulation developed especially for cosnova contains more than 94 percent post-consumer material, and was precisely tailored to the customers’ requirements through the minimal addition of precisely combined specialist additives,” said Manica Ulcnik-Krump, head of the Business Unit Recycled-Resource at Interseroh Dienstleistungs GmbH.
“This ensures that the recyclate fulfils all the quality expectations in terms of its colour, mechanical resistance and stability in processing, not to mention the material purity, and therefore fulfils the exacting requirements of decorative cosmetics.”
Interseroh is part of the Alba Group, a group of recycling and environmental services companies and raw material providers operating in Germany, Europa and Asia. In 2019, its divisions generated turnover of €2.0 billion. In 2019 alone, the Group achieved savings of some 4.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions compared to primary production and 32.3 million tonnes of primary raw materials through its recycling activities.