Are beauty packaging components leading the way for sustainability?

Sustainability today is no longer an option; it is a mission for all those companies that want to be competitive in the market. Consumers, in fact, are always asking for more commitment from producers to offer eco-friendly alternatives to potentially polluting materials, such as plastic. All the professionals within the beauty packaging industry are at the forefront of finding solutions to these requests. Let’s see how in this article.

Green beauty packaging: some reasons why you should consider it

Sustainability in the beauty industry doesn’t mean just organic ingredients and formulations, which are certainly crucial elements. Considering the whole product life cycle,  you can implement eco-friendly solutions at different times, such as during transportation and packaging manufacturing. When consumers buy a product, they do not just look at the ingredients inside: they want to be aware of the entire supply chain (e.g., where the raw materials are bought and managed and who works on them), and they prefer buying items produced by companies focused on sustainability.

Beauty packaging elements are very important in this process. We have to consider that 2.5 billion plastic bottles end up in landfills every year, and the beauty industry is a major contributor, as most of its containers are designed to be used just once and are made of nonrecyclable materials. This is an issue that consumers also contribute to, as we are more prone to reuse and recycle kitchen objects compared with bathroom waste. The solution to this problem is choosing sustainable box packaging. Many studies confirm that today’s consumers want to purchase products with eco-friendly packaging:

• Dotcom Distribution’s 2019 eCommerce consumer study highlights that 62% of consumers are more likely to choose brands using sustainable packaging
• In a survey conducted by Business News Daily, we read that more than 80% of participants said they felt it was “important or extremely important” for companies to design environmentally conscious products
• The 2019 Packaging Digest Consumer Survey on Plastic Packaging Sustainability reports that 60% of respondents want nonplastic packaging options

These studies demonstrate that sustainable beauty packaging is becoming a deciding factor for consumers when they buy cosmetics, fragrances, or makeup items. Those brands that define themselves as “green” must especially consider this issue. For them, having sustainable packaging is important to preserve and enhance their image and reputation. What sense would it make to call themselves “eco-friendly” and “organic” without using a sustainable container for their products? Green packaging would show consumers that the company actually practices what it claims.

The best way to offer 100% sustainable packaging is to use ecological material, such as wood. In the last few years, wood has become the most used material by green brands for their packaging, but the luxury industry has also moved in this direction. Wooden sustainable beauty packaging, in fact, doesn’t mean low quality or aesthetically bad. On the contrary, many types of wood are very expensive and rare, so they make the product even more valuable thanks to their elegance and prestige. Think about mahogany, teak, ebony, santos, bubinga, wengé, and burl: these are some of the most precious and high-priced materials currently on the market. Very often these types of wood are used to create beauty packaging components, such as caps or luxury containers for makeup products.

Even less prestigious essences, however, can be used to create luxury beauty packaging components. Wood can be enhanced and customized with many types of finishes to respond to customers’ preferences and companies’ need to be unique and distinctive. Some manufacturers are also developing innovative water-based eco-friendly lacquers that ensure a completely safe product for consumers and the environment too. Wooden beauty packaging design is increasingly popular among companies and brands that try to respond to consumers’ need for sustainable options and want to demonstrate their commitment.

If you are looking for an expert manufacturer that respects all the parameters and standards dictated by the market in terms of sustainability, Minelli S.p.A is the right choice. We are one of the first companies to be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC International), which guarantees that the raw material comes from responsibly managed forests, and we have adopted a strict policy of risk management to identify and control possible dangers linked to the chemicals we use. Moreover, we firmly believe in the circular economy model, and we try to reduce our impact on the environment by using sawdust to fuel our heating systems and heat drying chambers. We also have production plants in both Europe and the United States to make our logistics more sustainable.

Recently, we also introduced a significant innovation: the most sustainable wooden cap, avoiding use of the inner plastic cap, thanks to the internal thread directly CNC milled on the wood. In case a sealing gasket has to be present, it can be completely removed to guarantee a completely eco-friendly product. If you want to discover more about it or if you have a project in mind, please contact us: click here!