At Shiseido Americas, we are aligned with our global sustainability mission where we strive to reduce our environmental footprint and support the concept of a circular economy through the approach of 5Rs, defined as follows:

Respect—As our overarching principle, we respect people, society, and the environment.

Based on this, we aim to achieve 100% sustainable packaging by 2025. For each product launch, we seek to minimize environmental impact by applying the principles of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Replace into our packaging design.

It's All About Industry Alignment

In working toward these goals, we’ve made a series of strategic partnerships (such as joining SPICE), and quickly realized it’s all about industry alignment.

This is where I see the future of sustainable beauty heading—becoming an industry that brings together vendors, suppliers, and competitors alike.

The cosmetics industry produces more than 120B units of packaging annually—the problem is larger than any individual brand, vendor or corporation.

We are all facing similar challenges at various stages of the supply chain so why not share our learnings to better the industry?

Challenges for Luxury Brands

For instance, to compete in the luxury beauty market, certain packaging aesthetics and finishes are expected (i.e., metallization, anodization, laminate coatings, etc.), many of which impede recyclability (even if the component is molded in widely recyclable materials).

Makeup products are generally smaller in size than skin, hair, or body care products, and as a result they are not often captured in the recycling system. Additionally, some of the ingredients contributing to the wear time and performance of makeup formulations require more unique plastic resins to ensure compatibility.

Often these materials are not widely recyclable in the U.S.

These constraints frequently lead brands to incorporate postconsumer recycled (PCR) materials into their packaging.

Due to this increasing material demand, resin suppliers are challenged to improve the supply chain, availability, and quality of recycled materials.

A Refillable Approach

Some brands deploy a refillable approach, outlined as one of the key pillars of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s mission towards a circular economy.

Refillable strategies are great for many commodities, but with the importance of inclusivity in shade ranges, this raises inventory and merchandising challenges for refillable shaded makeup products.

There Is No Silver Bullet

This goes to show there is no silver bullet when it comes to solving the beauty industry’s challenge to improve the sustainability of our products and packaging.

The more we can align together, perhaps we can impact the recycling system, improve the availability of certain recycled materials, or even collaborate on consumer education to propel our collective efforts toward the common goal of reducing our environmental impact.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Jess Abrams is Executive Director, Sustainable Development, Shiseido Americas. In this newly created role, Jess works to drive Shiseido’s sustainability efforts for the Americas region, leveraging her expertise in product and package sustainability.

She is responsible for developing and deploying Shiseido’s corporate sustainability strategy to all brands throughout the organization. Jess is also a member of Beauty Packaging’s Board of Advisors.

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