Color Cosmetic Packaging: HCT Packaging’s Green Standards
Since 2004, beauty companies have been asking supplier HCT Packaging for help in finding green packaging solutions. “Since then, we’ve been doing a lot of research to make sure we’re offering packaging options that are truly green,” says Nick Gardner, vice president of sales at HCT Packaging’s offices in Los Angeles. Gardner, as well as the entire team at HCT Packaging, feels a strong sense of responsibility to offer beauty brands packages that the supplier believes in and can stand behind.
“About four years ago, we were looking at biodegradable resins, but something about them just didn’t sit right with us and still doesn’t,” says Gardner.
The issues Gardner has with plant-based resins are numerous. “There’s no real way to recycle packaging made from plant-based resins at the moment,” Gardner says. “It’s compostable; however, how many consumers in the United States have their own compost bins in their backyards?”
When a cosmetics package is made from a plant-based resin, it is a known fact that many consumers are confused about which trash or recycling bin to put it in. These types of packages are being mixed with other types of plastics in recycling bins, an act that does more harm than good. Plant-based resins pollute the recycling stream, according to Eric Lombardi, president of GrassRoots Recycling Network and the executive director of Eco-Cycle Inc., the largest nonprofit recycler in the United States.
In addition, a lot of energy is required to produce packaging from plant-based resins. The material would have to be shipped from the United States, where source plants are typically grown, to HCT Packaging’s factory in the Far East. “After being shipped to Asia, the resin would have to be processed using more oil, and then shipped back to the United States. It doesn’t make any sense,” says Gardner. “Additionally, plant-based resins also give off methane gases during production, which I believe are argued to be worse than carbon dioxide.”
The alternative material that HCT Packaging found was bamboo. “It grows quickly, abundantly, and in close proximity to our factory in the Far East,” Gardner says. “And, it doesn’t require the use of oil during production.” Gardner is in the process of finding a bamboo source that is certified as sustainable, an option that didn’t exist a few years ago when HCT Packaging first began experimenting with the material.
HCT Packaging is also looking into finding new materials and is even discovering ways to make packaging from material collected through consumer- and industrial-waste streams. Gardner often consults several green experts, such as the team at Material ConneXion in New York City. “We aren’t claiming to be experts ourselves, but we do a lot of research to find the answers we’re looking for,” he says.
More on Color Cosmetic Packaging
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