Sustainable Packaging: Glass vs Aluminum vs Bioplastics
It all begins with an idea.
When purchasing your cosmetics, it’s important to understand how different packaging materials impact the environment. Common materials used include glass, aluminum, and bioplastics.
Glass is often used for packaging due to its quality resilience and functionality. The material can be recycled and reformed to create new forms of packaging. Given that glass is mainly derived from natural substances, it is deemed more sustainable than plastics.
Once plastics enter the natural environment, they can further decompose and release microplastics into soils and water.
What is Conscious Consumerism?
It all begins with an idea.
Conscious consumerism is defined as the intentional purchasing of products that prioritize sustainability and ethicality within their features. This trend has significantly increased over recent years due to global challenges regarding “climate change, resource depletion, and environmental degradation” (Syed et al., 2024, pg. 1). Within the beauty industry, these conscious shoppers are typically looking for products that are vegan, ethically sourced, use clean or natural ingredients, and come from brands recognized for sustainable practices.
That being said, there are several issues shoppers face when looking for these clean or sustainable products. Issues such as greenwashing make it difficult for shoppers to identify which brands or products truly align with their needs/values.
Greenwashing within the beauty industry involves deceptive marketing strategies that advertise products as “natural, organic, or eco-friendly” to entice conscious shoppers (Kaur & Baranidharan, 2024, p. 2). These claims are often misleading, as there is either minimal or no evidence demonstrating how these brands actually take part in sustainable practices. For example, a product’s label may describe the product as organic, even though a greater amount of its ingredients are harmful to the environment and customers’ overall health (Kaur & Baranidharan, 2024). Without full transparency, shoppers are not able to make the best-informed decisions regarding their beauty purchases.
To combat this issue, evaluating cosmetics based on different assessment tools can help shoppers ensure their money is put toward products that truly meet their sustainability criteria.
Useful tools include…
Greenwashing Index — helps shoppers self-assess a product advertisement based on a set of five questions; generates an overall score based on their responses to each question, where a higher score implies greater use of greenwashing within the advertisement (Greenwashing Index, n.d.).
EcoLabel Index — this platform serves as an ecolabel directory, encompassing over 25 different industry sectors and 199 countries, enabling shoppers to search for brands that hold third-party certifications signifying their credibility in meeting recognized environmental standards (EcoLabel Index, n.d.).
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) — allows shoppers to assess the environmental impact associated with products’ development throughout all stages of their life cycle. Impacts measured include energy required, carbon footprint, use of natural resources, etc. (Sustainability Guide, n.d.).
References
https://sustainabilityguide.eu/methods/life-cycle-assessment/
https://www.ecolabelindex.com/
https://greenwashingindex.com/about-greenwashing/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378787456_A_Comprehensive_Evaluation_of_Assessment_Tools_for_Detecting_Corporate_Greenwashing_Practices_in_the_Beauty_and_Cosmetics_Industry
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667378924000312?