Лучше намажься свеклой: как бьюти-индустрия влияет на экологию

What you can do

Many issues plague the cosmetic industry, from waste to overconsumption and farming practices that harm the ecosystem. However, all is not lost, as beauty brands are taking notice of the fact that consumers are veering toward sustainability. Therefore, some brands are taking steps to be more ethical, transparent, and environmentally safe.

While the beauty industry is trying to become more sustainable, you can do a few things to help push the agenda of sustainable cosmetics forward. 

Choose natural beauty products

Photo by Kristina Balić on Unsplash

Beauty products with natural and organic ingredients are not only good for your skin, but they are also good for the environment as well. Cosmetics with toxic ingredients can cause irreparable damage to your skin, health, and the environment. 

From bath products to, deodorants, make-up, and sunscreens, there are so many cosmetics made with natural ingredients and minimal to low-zero-waste packaging available. These products are not hard to find either; check out some of our lists of the best here:

• Zero-waste makeup
• Zero-waste deodorant
• Zero-waste sunscreen
• Zero-waste mascara
• Zero-waste makeup remover

Buy from sustainable beauty brands

There are so many beauty companies with tons of beauty products in the market today, and more are still cropping up every day. Look out for the brands that operate on sustainable practices like using renewable energy sources, minimalist or recycled paper packaging, and sustainable palm oil. Apart from zero negative impact on the environment, fair labor and trading practices are also important.

Finding the one that beautifies your skin without destroying the planet may not be as easy as just picking the nicest-looking product on the shelf, but it is well worth every effort that goes into it.

Educate yourself 

Some big beauty brands tout themselves as natural or organic while being only partially or insignificantly so. The British Beauty Council reports showed that 1 in every 3 persons does not understand the origin or impacts of the ingredients in their beauty brand choices or personal care products.

Greenwashing tricks many consumers into buying cosmetics with too many harmful chemicals and too few natural ingredients. Many brands are guilty of greenwashing their products. They may add just 1% organic material and proceed to label the product ‘green,’ ‘natural,’ or ‘organic.’

Learn about the ingredients and certifications that indicate how safe a product is for you and the environment. Don’t forget to help raise awareness by telling friends and family about the things you learn.

Conclusion

We should care for our beautiful planet as much as we care for our cherished bodies. Personal care products that cause environmental damage do not reflect true beauty. Adjust your beauty routine to fit into your sustainable lifestyle.

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Glitter

Conventional glitter is essentially just little pieces of sparkly plastic. It’s often made from a combo of aluminum and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and as you can imagine, it sparkles all the way down our drains and into our bodies of water the same as any other microplastic.

It’s best to avoid synthetic glitter altogether, but you’ll have to carefully check the ingredient lists because it can be hidden in cosmetic ingredients under unfamiliar chemical names such as:

• Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
• Polyurethane-11
• Polyurethane-33
• Nylon-12
• PVP

Have plastic beauty containers? Here’s how to recycle/dispose of them

The first step to figuring out how to properly recycle your beauty product containers is to check your local recycling laws, because recycling varies by county. RecycleCoach and How2Recycle are great resources for this!

Generally speaking, #1 and #2 are recyclable plastics that are widely accepted in curbside recycling programs. You can look on your packaging for the chasing arrow icon and it should have a number inside to indicate the plastic type.

Unfortunately, small packaging or components usually can’t be recycled such as loose caps, plastic lip balm tubes, plastic mascara tubes, etc.

You can also look for alternative recycling programs that might be available near you or for mail in. Many brands have their own send-back programs so check the company’s website or contact them directly to see if they offer this kind of service.

Other great programs are TerraCycle’s Personal Care & Beauty Recycling Program and Nordstrom BeautyCycle.

How you can reduce waste from beauty products

Not all hope is lost though! There’s so many ways you can reduce your own plastic waste when it comes to your beauty routine.

Look for sustainably packaged alternatives to conventional makeup and skincare brands that use plastic. Zerra & Co. sells all the usual makeup and skincare essentials you’re used to, but with little to no plastic. Here are some customer favorites:

• The Mascara in Zero Waste Packaging comes in a glass tube with a metal lid, along with a reusable bamboo spoolie. Or you can forfeit the spoolie and clean and reuse one of your own!
• Our Eyeliner is zero waste too! It comes in a glass pot with a metal lid, along with a bamboo brush. You can also skip the brush and reuse your own.
• The Mineral Powder Foundation is packaged in a 100% plastic free, recyclable paper container! There are currently 16 shades available.
• For eyeshadow, we offer the refillable paperboard Neutrals Palette along with Loose Mineral Eyeshadows which come in glass pots with bamboo lids.
• For a simplified, low waste skincare routine, try combining our Gel Face Wash, Botanical Toner, and Daily Face Moisturizer. If you’re looking for a full routine, check out our entire line of sustainable skincare.

Another way to reduce waste is to look for products that are multi-use. Try a “less is more” approach and look for simple products that you can use for multiple purposes. A good example of this is our Tinted Lip Balm, which has multiple uses beyond just a lip tint!

Plastic waste can also sneak into online orders even when you are buying sustainable products, so look into shipping practices when buying online. Zerra & Co. always ships plastic free and carbon neutral!

Overall, remember the 4 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and (perhaps most importantly) Refuse. Vote with your dollar and skip out on the companies that are contributing to so much plastic waste in the cosmetics industry when you can.

Microplastics

The NOAA defines microplastics as “small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long which can be harmful to our ocean and aquatic life.” They are often the result of plastic waste being broken down into smaller and smaller pieces over time.

Microplastics can come from many sources including typical garbage, synthetic fabrics, glitter, and more. Microbeads and glitter are types of microplastics often used in the cosmetics industry, but they can also be the result of packaging breaking down over time.

These tiny particles can easily pass through the water filtration system and pollute our waterways and oceans. If they are in any way consumed, they can pass through the GI tracts of organisms and expose them to high concentrations of toxins. This definitely affects our aquatic animal friends, but it affects us and other land animals too.

Microbeads

Plastic pollution doesn’t stop with the packaging of beauty products. Plastic finds its way into our actual products too, such as with microbeads.

Microbeads are small plastic pieces commonly used in body scrubs and other exfoliants. These microplastics get washed directly down our drains and easily find their way into our waterways.

Although microbeads were technically banned in the U.S. in 2015 and then in 2018 in the U.K, the results are still a bit murky. Truthfully, there are just too many loopholes and not enough regulation to know if companies are really honoring this ban or just finding ways around it while still contributing to microplastic pollution.

Towards a Sustainable, Beautiful Future

It is just reasonable to take as much care of our environment as we do of our precious bodies. Personal care items that pollute the planet are not representatives of true beauty. In addition to adopting a sustainable lifestyle, we all should make an effort toward promoting an eco-friendly beauty routine.

As for business owners in the cosmetics industry, the time to start going green is now! Consumers are increasingly expecting eco-friendly beauty products that are safe for them and the environment. As a result, the market for green cosmetics is rising exponentially. Using raw, natural ingredients can re-establish your brand both environmentally and financially.

About the Author:

Penelope Martinez is a writer for various beauty brands. She is a big fan of skincare and an advocate of sustainability. She enjoys traveling, listening to music, spending time with friends, and discovering new skills in her spare time.

The Environmental Impact of the Beauty Industry

The beauty business has been growing at an unprecedented rate, thanks to the advent of highly customer-centric brands.

But here’s a caveat: innovative product options entail an unseen environmental cost. Moreover, an influx of new participants drives these alternatives due to the ease of entering the business market, which is highly driven by technology, social media, digital marketing, and other relevant factors.

There’s a long list of challenges for brands looking to minimize the environmental effects of their products. These include wasteful packaging, water wastage, carbon production, microplastic pollution, and animal cruelty. Let’s explore each of these issues.

1. Packaging waste

Packaging leans more toward commercialism and less about practicality in the beauty industry. Yet, for most beauty companies, packaging seems to be a top priority. The higher the face value of a beauty product is, the more elaborate and superfluous packaging it is likely to have – especially in a time where the unboxing experience is a significant aspect of online shopping.

Cosmetic packaging is not always easy to recycle. Much of the boxes, bags, and containers these products come in are made of a mixture of materials. It is frequently a waste of time for recycling personnel to separate the components, even if they are separable. It is also inconvenient even if consumers can separate the packaging components themselves.

2. Water wastage

Water may not be the first component that springs to mind when thinking about beauty care treatments, but it is used in a wide range of cosmetics. From bathing and cleansing products to lotions and creams, water dissolves the ingredients that penetrate the skin.

Plus, with the growing global population, the rapid progress of the economy, and the massive consumption that goes with it, the water demand is alarmingly increasing.

While agriculture consumes most water, the personal care and cosmetics business is a rising contributor to the issue. As more people become aware of the matter, pressure is mounting on cosmetic brands to develop long-term solutions.

3. Carbon production

Cleaning products, printing inks, insecticides, and wood finishes all include volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are air pollutants. VOCs can also be found in cosmetics such as fragrances, deodorants, and hair sprays.

A study shows these products significantly contribute to carbon dioxide emissions. In particular, household and beauty product emissions account for half of the VOCs generated in as many as 33 major cities.

Fossil fuel-derived ingredients used in cosmetic products and packaging also contribute to the carbon footprint. Carbon pollution is a significant problem even when natural components are extracted, as they can be processed in non-sustainable methods.

4. Microplastic pollution

It is not only cosmetic packaging where plastic pollution comes from. Microbeads, a type of plastic, are found in the merchandise themselves.

These microbeads are small-sized plastic particles that are commonly used as exfoliants in body scrubs and other beauty products. A consumer can flush thousands of microplastics down the drain and into water bodies simply by using cosmetics that contain microbeads.

Microbeads that absorb toxins are eventually ingested by fish and humans, exacerbating a problem that already exists in the world’s oceans: catastrophic plastic pollution.

5. Animal cruelty

Animal testing for cosmetics is inhumane and uncalled for and is a part of why vegan beauty products have become more popular over the years. Some tests animals are subjected to include skin and eye irritation experiments, in which animals’ eyes and shaved skin are subjected to the chemicals.

Another harsh experiment is the lethal dose test. Here, researchers administer a deadly dose of chemicals to animals to identify fatal, dangerous substances. Animals that do not die from the stresses of laboratory experiments may be subjected to asphyxiation, neck-breaking, or decapitation.

Photo by William Shu on Unsplash