Dow and LVMH Beauty, a division of LVMH, the France-based luxury group active in six sectors have announced their intention to work together on the further development and implementation of sustainable packaging across LVMH’s range of perfume and cosmetic products.
The new packaging, made from sustainable Surlyn Ionomers, a polymer prized for its excellent aesthetic qualities, will offer the same functionality and quality as conventional packaging, the companies said. Premium perfume caps and cosmetic cream jars are commonly produced from conventional Surlyn Ionomers based on fossil feedstocks.
Sustainable Surlyn will be created from bio-based and circular plastics derived from bio-based and plastic waste feedstock respectively. The sustainable Surlyn portfolio will offer the same crystalline transparency and design freedom as the original. The first new LVMH perfume packaging incorporating the new, sustainable Surlyn - both bio-based and circular - will be introduced this year, the companies said.
“At LVMH, with our Life 360 programme, we made the decision that our packaging will contain zero plastic from virgin fossil resources in a near future,” said Claude Martinez, executive president and managing director of LVMH Beauty.
Bio-based feedstocks for the production of bio-based Surlyn include raw materials such as used cooking oil. Only waste residues or by-products from an alternative production process are thus eliminating all competition with agricultural land use and food production.
‘Unrecyclable’ mixed waste plastic is chemically recycled into a circular feedstock which is then used to produce new, circular Surlyn.
“Creating a circular economy takes every player in the value chain to commit to ambitious goals and challenge the status quo,” said Karen S. Carter, president of Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Dow.
Dow is already working with customers and other stakeholders to drive the transformation that is needed to tackle the challenges of climate change and the environment. The present collaboration aligns with the company’s Transform the Waste target announced in October 2022.