The beauty industry produces a significant amount of packaging waste. According to a recent report by Zero Waste Week, the global cosmetics industry produces over 120 billion units of packaging every year.
In many countries, including New Zealand, the recycling rates for beauty product packaging are relatively low. According to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally.
What is plastic?
Plastic has been an important part of our lives for hundreds of years. The word plastic comes from Greek, and it means, “moulded from heat.” Plastic polymers like beeswax, bones, fossilised pine-tree resin (amber) and horns occur naturally, but it’s the commercial production, use, and tossing away of plastic items that is causing increasing concern.
Sobering facts about plastic waste in New Zealand and around the world.
Plastic is big business: The New Zealand plastics industry employs 8,000 people and has a turnover of more than 1.8 billion dollars a year.
Plastic accounts for around 8% of New Zealand’s waste by weight. However, because plastic is so light, it’s estimated it takes up as much as 20% of our landfill space. Around 252,000 tons of plastic heads to New Zealand landfills each year.
So why is plastic such a problem?
Plastic doesn’t biodegrade. The plastic that ends up in landfill will take over 400 years to degrade, and even then, it never fully degrades – only disintegrates into smaller and smaller pieces.
Especially concerning for New Zealand as an island nation, with an outdoors, water centric lifestyle, is the fact that plastic also ends up in our oceans, with devastating effects. Scientists estimate 8 million metric tonnes of plastic globally end up in the ocean every year – that’s one garbage truck worth of plastic being tipped into the ocean every minute. Birds, fish, and mammals ingest this plastic, causing health issues, death, and even species-level extinction.
Scientists predict that unless we change now, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
According to Plastics NZ, each New Zealander consumes approximately 31 kg of plastic packaging every single year, and only recycles 5.58kgs. Projections show the amount of plastic we throw into landfill is also on the increase. The annual amount of waste in Auckland landfills will double in the next ten years, going from 1.5 million tonnes to 3 million tonnes. This means we’ll be throwing out more plastic than ever if we don’t do something.
97% of New Zealanders do already have access to facilities for recycling paper, glass, cans and plastics 1 and 2. So why are our rates so low and what could we do better? This was a question that Marie August, founder of Juvenate skincare pondered and thoroughly researched. Because we work with potent, cosmedical grade ingredients, stability and integrity of our formulations are major considerations, Marie found that PCR and plant-based plastics are a more sustainable choice for both the environment, with the manufacturing process of recycled plastics requiring less energy and producing lower greenhouse gas emissions, and the integrity of formula is protected more when compared to packaging in glass or aluminium.
Ingeniously designed using all-plastic recycled materials, our airless bottles divert plastic waste from sea beds & landfills, minimising virgin plastic consumption, helping us all to contribute to the conservation of natural resources while promoting a circular economy.
Additionally, our new lightweight minimalist airless design reduces our plastic by 50%, reduces our carbon footprint with freight and also ensures that you can use every bit of the product without wasting any.
When our customers are done with their bottles, they can return them to their participating Juvenate Skin Clinic to be transformed into durable products as part of our commitment to a circular economy with FuturePost. We’re incredibly proud to announce that we’ve been approved as a Future Post Recycling Advocate – A nod to kiwi ingenuity, a great fit for the Juvenate environmental philosophy and perfect for the planet and all of our environmentally conscious consumers!
Future Post is a Kiwi company with one goal: to divert as much plastic as possible from New Zealand’s landfills and recycle this resource into enduring, sustainable, and environmentally beneficial fence post products. Future Post was founded in the time-honoured Kiwi way of trying to find an ingenious solution for a challenging problem. While attempting to install a fence on an old rubbish dump site, fencer and farmer Jerome Wenzlick found his wooden fenceposts were breaking as he tried ramming them through all the buried waste plastic in the ground.
With a passion for the environment, Jerome had the revelation that if he could build a stronger fencepost from waste plastic, he’d also help solve a bigger environmental problem, leading to a commitment to produce premium products, that perform better, for longer.
Made from 100% recycled waste plastic, Future Posts are as strong as timber, won’t split, rot or crack and can be re-recycled, so will last for generations. By using 100% recycled waste plastic composition with no raw plastics used, thousands of tonnes of hard-to-recycle waste plastics are diverted from New Zealand landfills every year.
As an added bonus for our agricultural community, replacing chemically treated wooden posts means there is no risk of leaching copper, chromium and arsenic into soil or water.
Resulting in the ultimate sustainable and circular post which can be recycled again and again by Future Post giving the plastic a useful lifespan of many hundreds of years.
Completely saying goodbye to conventional fossil-based plastic and embracing a sustainable future, our tubes are made from Sugarcane!
This Plant-based plastic not only protects our products with its durable and lightweight nature, but it also embraces the essence of Mother Earth herself. When plastic is made from renewable resources such as sugarcane, we reduce reliance on fossil fuels, helpscombat climate change and reduce our carbon footprint.
Sugarcane plastic manufacturing requires less energy and emits fewer greenhouse gases than glass or aluminium production. Unlike glass and aluminium, sugarcane plastic helps absorb carbon dioxide during sugarcane plant growth, reducing emissions. Additionally, its production uses less energy compared to energy-intensive glass or aluminium processes. Moreover, sugarcane-based plastic is renewable as it relies on regrowable crops, unlike finite fossil fuels.
We’re proud to close the recycling loop, and encourage our consumers to return their empty Juvenate tubes, along with empty Juvenate bottles to participating Juvenate Clinics to be transformed into durable products as part of our commitment to a circular economy with FuturePost. This sees our full range of packaging truly making a difference and helping the environment at all stages of production, transport, use and disposal.
