The service gap in sustainable packaging.
Greenwashing is a marketing tactic that deceives consumers into believing a business’ products and processes are more environmentally-friendly than they actually are. Fast fashion is a known and well-criticized culprit, but social media also shows us that small, independent cosmetics and fashion brands are guilty of embellishing their environmental claims.
One thing I’ve noticed, particularly in independent skincare, is an abundance of companies claiming their packaging is “environmentally friendly”, “sustainable” or “zero-waste”. This is typically shorthand for “not plastic”. We know plastic has a significant negative impact on our environment, so replacing it is a good thing. The issue is that throwing out non-plastic packaging still contributes to ever-growing landfills. Even recyclable materials like glass will pile up, often falling short of making it to recycling facilities.
Offloading the hard work
Many of us know, the key to real sustainability is reducing waste entirely. The problem is that small businesses still make and ship products with no strategy for packaging disposal. Ultimately, the onus is on the customer to figure out what to do with the bottles and pretty jars that housed their ingredients.
“It’s reusable!” they’ll say.
And maybe it is. But so is every other container ever purchased. Plastic containers, metal containers and glass containers are all reusable for a certain amount of time. Meaning most homes are probably already full of reusable containers and people are running out of ways to repurpose things. So post-purchase disposal is still a big gap that brands forget (or refuse?) to truly plan for.
Planning for disposal or reintegration
Thankfully there are some brands thinking of interesting ways to reduce waste for their customers out of the gate. Of Canadian skincare brands I know, Ontario-based Maison Wolfberry springs to mind. While they do let “recylability” do the heavy lifting in terms of promoting sustainability on their website, they also have a refill program that allows their customers to receive product refills in generic aluminium bottles which can be sent back to the company for a discount on your next purchase. This is an interesting model for local purchasing because postal costs and distance travelled would be reasonable but for products shipped long distances it wouldn’t really make sense for customers to send containers back (cost-wise, emission-wise etc.)
Another Ontario-based brand is etee, who offer skincare products in what they claim to be fully backyard compostable pods made of algae, hemp, waxes and resins. This approach certainly minimizes back and forth shipping and having to clean returned containers so if the pods compost as well as they say and are proven harmless (without microplastics etc.) then it’s certainly an ideal solution.
In other industries, such as food delivery, organizations like Bo Paq or Retournzy (both in Montreal) have created a service that provides, collects and cleans packaging for reuse, without requiring end customers or restaurateurs to be doing all of the work. The city of Prevost in Quebec, has taken it a step further by offering the service itself for restaurants in their city, creating a local network of reusable containers.
