Bath and Body Products: Natural Growth
LUSH soaps are displayed in
“big blocks” in the store and are sold “by the slice.” Customers can carry the soaps out without packaging, or the soaps can be wrapped in compostable wax paper.
As expected, natural bath and body packages are going green.
By Dorothy Spencer and Jennifer Kwok, EditorTwo trends have been growing hand in hand in the personal care industry. Demand for natural products is up, as evidenced by the increasing number in the mainstream market. As the natural product market grows, green packaging is also making the transition from niche to mainstream.
As green packaging becomes more prevalent, natural product manufacturers have come under pressure to go green. Green packaging is not only a feature that especially suits the image of natural products; natural product consumers have come to expect it.
PCR versus PLA
Alpha Packaging can create PCR PET bottles using virtually any of its PET bottle molds, in PCR
percentages as high as 100%. The supplier suggests tinting PCR bottles in a dark color to hide any visual imperfections, such as black dots or color variations, which often show up in recycled plastic resin.
“We are seeing a heightened desire to use packaging materials that are as environmentally responsible as the products that go in them,” says Marny Bielefeldt of personal care packaging supplier Alpha Packaging (St. Louis). Alpha Packaging exhibits at many natural product trade shows such as the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA. “These all-natural companies have a high level of knowledge about the various [green] options in the marketplace,” says Bielefeldt.
Bielefeldt says that demand has been shifting from polylactic acid (PLA), a bioresin made from corn by-products, to postconsumer recycled (PCR) resin. “From 2005 until early 2007, the majority of inquiries that we received at trade shows and during sales calls were related to PLA. In the second half of 2007 and at shows earlier this year, we noticed a dramatic shift in interest from PLA to PCR.”
She says that there are several good reasons why many personal care manufacturers that she knows are finding PCR more appealing than PLA. “PLA has a relatively high moisture-vapor transmission rate, which means that water-based products are not especially well suited to long-term storage in PLA packaging. Over time, moisture from products can evaporate out of the package, changing the formulation. Conversely, humidity can also get into the package, which can be a problem for products that react adversely with moisture.”
By contrast, Bielefeldt says, “PCR is simply a postconsumer recycled version of virgin resin. When processed correctly, recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) share the same chemical properties as virgin resin. PET can even be ‘solid-stated’ to bring it back to virtually the same intrinsic viscosity as virgin PET.”
For customers looking for PCR bottles, Alpha provides bottles with PET PCR percentages as high as 100%. “We can run the PET PCR using virtually all of our PET blow molds, so it is very easy for customers to convert their current packaging from virgin PET to recycled PET with minimal tests and no new mold costs.”
She adds that natural product companies seem to be highly knowledgeable about the various green packaging options in the marketplace. “No matter how large or small a company may be, most visitors to our [trade show] booths come prepared with a list of questions that they have developed after reading up on bioresins, biodegradability, recycling, chemical additives or by-products, and the like. For example, people are usually aware of the moisture-barrier problems inherent in plant-based/starch-based resins, so they ask specifically about compatibility and shelf-life issues. We also field frequent questions about chemical additives that can be used to expedite the biodegradability of petroleum-based plastics.”
Another packaging supplier, Zorbit Resources Inc. (New York City), strives to educate its customers about green packaging. “Before we begin the creative development process, our team spends a lot of time educating our customers [about] much of the marketing hype that surrounds green,” says Scott Kestenbaum, senior account manager for packaging supplier Zorbit. “A classic example [of what we teach them] is that all bioresins and biodegradable plastics such as PLA are currently not pulled into recycling centers [for recycling]. These materials are coded as ‘other.’ The proper composting environment does not exist on a commercial basis, so the biodegradable resins end up in landfills anyway.”
He continues, “There are a lot of good intentions in the marketplace today. However, we have a long way to go before many green products meet the questionable claims made by many marketers.”
Brands Step Up
Sun Feather, a line for
gardening fans, uses recycled paper in its packaging.
Despite the level of green hype in the marketplace, some natural product brands are as good as their word when it comes to adopting greener packaging.
At natural brand Mad Gab’s, green packaging is a philosophy as well as a practice. Mad Gab’s founder Gabrielle Melchionda says, “We don’t overpackage our products. Lip balms and hand balms are packaged in metal tins that are as easy to recycle as soup cans. We use non-PVC bags to hold our gift sets.”
Brands Step Up
Mad Gab’s
recyclable lip balm tins are
decorated with images of various animals. The line is sold in zoo and aquarium stores.
Mad Gab’s tins are covered with bright, colorful graphics featuring moose, bears, monkeys, and sea life from lobsters to manatees and whales. These products are sold in zoo and aquarium stores nationwide.
Another natural bath and body brand using eco-friendly packaging is Sun Feather, a line for gardening fans. The brand’s All-Natural Hand Soap with Pumice set is handsomely packaged in recycled paper covered in botanical prints and early English typeface in contrasting shades of green.
Bar Soaps: Reducing Packaging
Besides using eco-friendly materials, reducing the amount of packaging used is another way to go green. “While there are many new and exciting green technologies on the market, the simplest concept tends to be the noblest—less is more,” says Kestenbaum. “One of the most effective green approaches a brand can take is to reduce the real size of a package. This reduces material usage, conserves resources, and saves fuel [used during] shipments.”
Bar soaps offer an excellent opportunity to reduce packaging. LUSH Fresh Handmade emphasizes its lack of packaging for its line of body butters and bubble bar slices. “We try to minimize the packaging wherever we can,” says Brandi Halls, U.S. public relations manager for LUSH. “The product creators are passionate about reducing the amount and need for packaging in the beauty industry, so they strive to convert traditional liquid products such as soap, bubble bath, and shampoo into solid forms. Not only does this eliminate the need for preservatives, but it also eliminates the need for packaging as well.”
Halls continues, “Our soaps are displayed in big blocks in the store, and customers are encouraged to touch and smell them. All of the products are sold by weight, so our staff will cut the soap to whatever size/price the customer requests. Generally, the soap is then wrapped in LUSH wax paper and sealed with a deli label, very much mimicking the way you’d buy cheese in a deli.”
The wax paper is supplied by Unisource Canada Inc., and the paper maker is De Luxe Paper Products Inc., also located in Canada. A firm devoted to eco-friendliness, De Luxe Paper says that, even when coated with wax, which provides good moisture-barrier properties, the paper is compostable. According to the company, properly formulated paraffin wax–based coatings are inherently biodegradable and decompose under exposure to normal outdoor conditions, as well as in a composting process, because they are not polymer-based.
LUSH customers can also choose to forego packaging altogether. “We want our customers to choose how they will take their products home. Some choose to have their soaps wrapped in our biodegradable and compostable wax paper. Others bring bags of their own,” says Halls. The company estimates that in general, approximately 3 million plastic bottles are not manufactured, transported, and disposed of because customers chose to buy LUSH’s solid-shampoo bars instead of a bottled liquid version.
With the size of the natural bath and body market increasing, bath and body marketers must still use packaging to gain attention among other soap brands on the shelf. With brands moving away from lavish packaging, which is often used to draw attention, marketers are finding other creative ways to get their products noticed.
The Soap Fairy has found a way to use minimal packaging for its soaps while still catching customer attention—the brand’s soap is packaged to look like a popsicle.
Tom Blackstone, founder and primary soap maker for natural line The Soap Fairy, is constantly looking for new and clever ways to get his products noticed—without using a lot of excess packaging. One of the company’s biggest sellers is its Fudgesicle soap. The soap smells like chocolate and looks like everyone’s favorite Popsicle—with minimal packaging required.
Tree-Free Paper
Another eco-friendly approach to packaging bar soaps is to use eco-friendly paper wrappers. However, although paper is a sustainable resource, threats of deforestation may call for even-more-sustainable options.
Burt’s Bee’s soaps are packaged in TerraSkin, a tree-free paper made from limestone. TerraSkin is proven to degrade in six to nine months after exposure to direct sunlight and moisture.
Burt’s Bees embraces eco-friendly packaging, a responsible choice that pleases both the company and its customers. The brand’s latest soap wrappers are made of TerraSkin, a tree-free paper offered by Chameleon, the environmental division of packaging supplier Design & Source Productions Inc. (New York City).
TerraSkin paper is made of stone and will degrade back into the earth, according to Chameleon’s Web site. The paper is also water- and tear-resistant. “We realize that the paper industry is a big culprit in deforestation, and we think that with the many applications for paper, sometimes a tree-free paper is a better option,” states the Web site. The calcium carbonate that is used to make TerraSkin is mainly composed of postindustrial building material waste, or limestone scraps. The paper’s polyethylene binder is also derived from the postindustrial recycling stream.
According to Nicole Smith, environmental director for Design & Source Productions, third-party certification has shown that TerraSkin will begin to degrade when exposed to direct sunlight and moisture for approximately six to nine months. TerraSkin also requires less energy to produce than traditional paper and uses no water in its production. The paper can currently be recycled at the company’s production facilities, but “when the market warrants larger production, we will have a facility based in North America that can collect and recycle all waste material,” she adds.
Because TerraSkin is not made from paper and is therefore fiberless and less absorbant, it requires 20–30% less ink to print on than conventional paper. Chameleon prints the paper using only environmentally friendly, nontoxic inks. “We feel that not only is it important to fix deforestation problems, but we also recognize the damage that chlorinating pulp, printing, and toxic ink does to our water quality. Which is why TerraSkin is more beneficial for the environment—there is no bleaching involved [because calcium carbonate is naturally bright white]. The water used in the process of production is a closed loop, so we can avoid the constant dumping of toxic waste into the environment,” Chameleon states on its Web site.
Smith adds that it was important to Chameleon to quantify the impact, good and bad, of TerraSkin on the environment. In 2005, the company applied TerraSkin for cradle-to-cradle certification. This process involved a year-long effort to evaluate the product’s use of energy, water, and materials, as well as to evaluate the general life cycle of TerraSkin using McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. Last summer, cradle-to-cradle certification was granted to TerraSkin, which has been used, among other things, as the packaging material for New York City’s Museum of Modern Art gift boxes and shopping bags.
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