Sustainability
Sustainable plastic packaging for skincare brands
Sustainable packaging is a set of measurable choices — recycled content, refill, mono-material design, reduced weight and decoration that does not block sorting — rather than a single material.
There is no sustainable plastic. There are packaging decisions that reduce material, increase recycled input, extend use life or improve sortability — each with a trade-off against cost, protection and appearance.
Our approach is to quantify the measure you have chosen: the recycled percentage the grade holds, the grams saved per pack, the plastic per use in a refill system, or the mono-material status of a construction. Everything else in this section follows from that.
Guide
PCR Packaging
PCR packaging uses post-consumer recycled resin, so the pack contains material recovered from consumer waste rather than virgin feedstock. The percentage should be verified against the resin grade, not assumed.
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Recycled Plastic Packaging
Recycled plastic packaging uses reprocessed resin instead of virgin feedstock; post-consumer content supports circularity claims, while post-industrial content reduces waste but does not demonstrate circularity.
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Recyclable Packaging
Recyclable packaging is designed so the pack can be sorted and reprocessed in real collection systems; mono-material construction, light or natural colours and minimal non-matching components improve the outcome.
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Refillable Packaging
Refillable packaging keeps the decorated outer pack in use and replaces only an inner cartridge or pod, reducing plastic per use — provided the refill mechanism is simple enough that customers actually use it.
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Lightweight Packaging
Lightweight packaging reduces material per unit by optimising wall thickness, capacity and carton configuration, which lowers resin use and freight emissions without changing the pack's function.
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Sustainable Cosmetic Packaging
Sustainable cosmetic packaging is a set of measurable choices — recycled content, refill, mono-material design, reduced weight and decoration that does not block sorting — rather than a single material.
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Mono-Material Packaging
Mono-material packaging uses a single polymer for the pack and its closure — commonly all-PP or all-HDPE — so it sorts more reliably in existing recycling streams without separation.
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Reduced Plastic Usage
Reducing plastic usage means less material per unit sold: lighter parts, right-sized capacities, refill and concentrate formats, less decoration and leaner secondary packaging.
Read more →Measures we can implement and verify
Each measure below comes with documentation you can hand to a retail partner or sustainability team.
| Measure | What we deliver | Verification |
|---|---|---|
| Recycled content (PCR) | rHDPE, rPET, rPP bottles, jars, tubes and closures | Recycled-content certificate, supplier declaration, lot record |
| Mono-material design | All-PP or all-HDPE packs with matching closures | Material list per component |
| Refill and reuse | Refill cups, cartridges, pods and refill bottles | Insertion force, seal and dose testing per cycle target |
| Lightweighting | Wall and geometry optimisation, closure redesign | Part weight before and after, carton data |
| Reduced secondary packaging | Carton removal or slimming where regulations allow | Packing configuration and drop test results |
| Sortable decoration | Light moulded colour, direct print, small labels | Decoration specification per part |
How to word your claims
Write the measure, the value and the verification method — that is what survives a procurement review.
- Use: '50% post-consumer recycled HDPE; certificate available on request'
- Use: 'Mono-material PP pack; recyclable where PP collection exists'
- Use: 'Refill cup uses approximately one third of the plastic of a complete jar'
- Avoid: '100% eco-friendly', 'fully recyclable everywhere', 'plastic-free' on a plastic pack
- Avoid publishing certificate logos for grades that are not used in your order
What we publish — and what we verify with you
Figures such as capacity, headcount, certificate numbers and audit results are specific to a production site and order. We share them as documents during supplier qualification instead of publishing claims on a marketing page.
- Quality management documentation for the specific production site handling your order
- Material declarations (resin grade, REACH/SVHC statements, recycled-content certificates where applicable)
- Test reports for the actual mould, recipe and surface treatment of your project
- Factory audit documentation and equipment lists, shared under NDA on request
- Reference projects and sample shipments that can be sent to your team
What we will not claim
- Environmental claims the materials and design cannot support
- Certification logos for grades not used in your order
- Recyclability without reference to collection infrastructure
- Reuse cycle numbers that have not been validated by testing
- Biodegradability for bio-based plastics that are not certified degradable
Frequently asked questions
What is the easiest first step towards sustainable packaging?
Moving an existing opaque HDPE or coloured PP pack to certified PCR resin. No tooling change is required, the recycled percentage is verifiable, and the only new decision is a slightly wider colour tolerance.
Is refillable packaging better than recycled content?
Refill has a higher theoretical saving because it reduces material per use, but the benefit depends on how often customers actually reuse the pack. Recycled content applies to every unit sold, so its outcome is more certain.
Do you supply documentation for sustainability reporting?
Yes: recycled-content certificates where applicable, material declarations, component weights, mono-material confirmation, and refill component weights so plastic reduction per use can be calculated.
Can a premium acrylic pack be part of a sustainability strategy?
Only through reuse. Acrylic is resin code 7 and rarely collected, so the relevant measure is a refillable shell with a replaceable inner cup — not recyclability. We will say so rather than imply otherwise.
Still have a question? Talk to a packaging expert.
Related pages
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