Plastic Free Beauty and You – Why it Matters

At Acala we LOVE beauty.  We love beauty brands; we love skincare and haircare and indulgence.  But we don’t love excess waste and we definitely do not love plastic, and neither do you. 

In our recent survey, you ranked plastic free as a 9 out of 10 in terms of importance when shopping for beauty products. 

That’s why we exist.  To celebrate and enjoy beauty and wellness, without harming the planet or ourselves.

We believe in Plastic Free beauty so much that we don’t believe skin and hair care with plastic can be considered ‘truly beautiful’. And,you can wear all the makeup you like, but if it’s to walk around a planet littered with rubbish, it’s all pointless.

Why does plastic free beauty matter?

Tonnes of plastic, in the form of bags, bottles and plastic waste, finds its way into our rivers and oceans every day.  Most beauty products are packed and wrapped in plastic, and many products include it in their formulations.

According to the website Ban the Microbead, every year the beauty industry produces more than 120 BILLION units of packaging globally.

They also say that:

“Only 9% of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled, and about 12% incinerated and all the rest — 79% — ended up in landfills, dumps, or the natural environment”.

“When it comes to beauty packaging, 95% of it is thrown out after just one use, and only 14% of plastic makes it to a recycling center. Considering these figures, you can imagine what might be happening to the packaging of your personal care and beauty products”.

60% of you told us that you want to make your own beauty products

All plastic ever made still exists in some form – your first toothbrush may be floating around the sea. The nappies you wore still exist in some shape.  And the consequences are horrifying.

The Effects of Plastic on the Environment:

In our piece on the effects of plastic period products, we detailed the impact of plastics on both marine animals.  Aquatic ecosystems are being choked by plastic waste and microplastics are found in the organs of fish, leading to cancers and infertility.

The effects of Plastics on Humans:

Firstly, all our waste doesn’t just disappear.  It’s often shipped to the far east and India, burned and damages the environment and humans by throwing tons of microparticles into the air, leading to death and respiratory illness. 

Studies have suggested up to 80% of premature ageing is caused by pollution in the air, of which plastics make a huge part.

It goes further than that. Just this week, scientists shared a study showing that 80% of the people tested had particles of plastic in their blood.

Microplastics cause damage to human cells. By absorbing them into our blood streams, we also face risks to fertility, blood clots and heart problems.

This is a serious problem. For us at Acala, it simply can’t continue to happen.   

How can Beauty Brands and Businesses Solve This?

The only way this huge issue is ever going to change, is if consumers and brands work together to change it and we know how much you care.

In our recent survey, 60% of you told us that you want to make your own beauty products which is a great way to reduce your waste.

We’ve created specific DIY beauty sets and every month are launching new make your own body care recipes to help you minimise your environmental impact, without compromising on self-care.

Where possible we encourage minimal packaging and work with suppliers who can prove a commitment to ethical standards.

Another brilliant comment in our survey was:

“I am not a big consumer as I feel the most eco-friendly way of shopping is to reduce purchasing anything you do not need”.

We believe wholeheartedly in the power of beauty to support wellbeing and self care.  We know the power of makeup and skin care in transforming confidence for example.  But we only work with brands that care just as much about the planet and we don’t promote buying more than you need.

We also offer earth and body kind ingredients for essentials like dental care, menstrual care and baby products, to allow consumers a viable, zero waste alternative to high street ranges.

We were so impressed to discover that over 70% of you are buying more zero waste or plastic free personal care products now than you were two years ago.  These are the steps that make a huge difference. 

One of our purchasing options, includes subscription plans to key products, that allows you to stay stocked with what you need, when you need it.  Evidence has shown this helps prevent impulse purchases reducing additional waste.

Finally, we don’t promote huge sales, like Black Friday, because it goes against our own beliefs around consuming for the sake of it. Instead, we plant trees for purchases made and work hard as a brand to keep our carbon and consumer footprints neutral.

Our commitment to Plastic Free

All of our own brand products are plastic free and where we can we provide you with ‘naked’ options of products to avoid unnecessary packaging. Did you know that the footprint of liquid and bottled products comes primarily from the plastic packaging? 150g of carbon dioxide is released to make just one 25g plastic bottle.  This reduces to between 10-20g for 100-200g cardboard packaging options on solid products. 

Our plastic free attempts are not just limited to our products, we have a goal to achieve zero single-use plastic in all our operations by 2022. Currently, the sources of single-use plastic for us are the packaging that our glass bottles and boxes for packing orders come in as well as the material our shipping labels are printed on. It is a receipt type paper that contains BPE so is not biodegradable.

You can read more about our commitment to removing single-use plastic completely from our operations in our Sustainable Business Plan.