United States
The 5 Rs of Packaging Sustainability
Company Feature, Oct 24, 2024
Packaging helps us tell the story of our prestige beauty products. From luxurious materials to sophisticated designs, thoughtfully constructed packaging instantly elevates the experience of spritzing a finely crafted perfume or applying a sumptuous night cream.
Yet our approach to packaging at ELC goes beyond delighting consumers’ senses: It also presents a key opportunity to incorporate additional sustainability concepts into our product offerings, aligned with our goals. In fiscal 2020, we launched Packaging Sustainability Guidelines to help inform our package developers, marketers, and procurement teams as they create and deliver high-quality packaging that is functional, luxurious, and tailored to the needs of each of our unique brands.
We approach packaging sustainability through the conceptual framing of “5 Rs”: recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled, or recoverable. By 2025, our goal is for 75 to 100% of our packaging by weight to be aligned with at least one of these principles. In fiscal 2024, 71% of ELC’s packaging by weight was recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled, or recoverable. As we monitor our progress toward achieving these goals at scale, our global Packaging Sustainability team continues to work closely with our brands, including those more recently acquired, to find new opportunities and areas for long-term improvement. In support of our progress toward a circular economy, ELC also holds membership in groups including the Sustainable Packaging Initiative for Cosmetics and the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty.
ELC's Packaging Sustainability Guidelines outlines 5 key priorities:
- Reducing and removing packaging where possible
- Designing packaging that is reusable and refillable
- Building designed-in recyclability
- Increasing amounts of Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) material in packaging
- Replacing petroleum-based plastics with bioplastics (if the bioplastic can be recycled and does not contaminate recycling streams)
Reusable
Reusable packaging refers to containers that can be used multiple times, with or without a secondary refill component, as well as packaging that can be returned to the brand.
At the end of fiscal 2024, 9 of our brands offered at least one reusable packaging component for select products. Le Labo provides a notable example: Consumers in the United States and United Kingdom can refill their eau de parfum glass bottles (50 mL and up) online or in select labs worldwide. With their personalized labels and elegant glass packaging, Le Labo’s fragrance bottles are worthy of keepsake status; refilling the bottles allows consumers to reuse and cherish their bottles for years.
Recyclable
A product’s recyclability may depend on size, decoration, material, and components, as well as the location in which it is sold. We look to integrate recyclability principles into packaging design whenever possible.
Aveda, for instance, is an industry leader with its development of paper-based, locally recyclable sachets for product samples. Compared to plastic alternatives, production of these paper-based sachets reduces water consumption by at least 36% and emits 37% fewer greenhouse gases. First launched in Europe and the United Kingdom, Aveda’s paper-based sample sachet is expected to roll out globally in 2025, making it the brand’s priority sampling packaging, where applicable.
Other packaging materials present design opportunities for recyclability, too. For example, Origins continues to design with packaging sustainability principles in mind with its PlantfusionTM Body Collection packed in recyclable packaging.
Refillable
Refillable packaging allows a container to be used multiple times in conjunction with a replaceable secondary component, helping to minimize single use and helping contribute to a circular economy.
One of our brand leaders in refillable packaging is Bobbi Brown, which minimizes waste with the design of its Extra Repair Moisture Cream Intense. When consumers polish off the last of this moisturizer, they can easily insert a refill pod into the original packaging, giving it new life with every replenishment.
In fiscal 2023, Estée Lauder transitioned its Luxury Fragrance collection to a recyclable and refillable glass bottle. According to the results of the life cycle assessment conducted, purchasing the Luxury Fragrance in the recyclable glass bottle and one refill helped us reduce associated emissions and water consumption by 20% after the initial purchase.* This product’s refillable bottle also helps to minimize packaging weight by 40%.
* After having purchased your first refillable and recyclable glass bottle.
Recoverable
Recoverable packaging can be collected through take-back programs, diverting it from landfills and converting it into energy or recycled materials. Developing such programs is a highly complex process: They are subject to local recycling and waste-handling laws and infrastructure, and implementation requires comprehensive employee training. Despite this complexity, ELC continued to develop take-back initiatives in fiscal 2024, with certain brands expanding their programs to new markets.
Today, brands including M·A·C, Aveda, DECIEM, Bobbi Brown, and Clinique offer take-back programs in select markets. “Back-To-M·A·C,” for instance, is a program that collects consumers’ used M·A·C packages for recycling, where possible.
Recycled
Recycled packaging incorporates materials that have been recovered or diverted from the waste stream. Including post-consumer recycled (PCR) content into our packages requires close collaboration with our suppliers, underscoring the collective and global nature of advancing towards our packaging sustainability goals.
Aveda uses recycled content as one of the principles that guides the brand packaging decisions across its products, including Be Curly AdvancedTM co-wash, which arrives in a recyclable bottle with 90% post-consumer recycled material.
Bumble and bumble’s Seaweed Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner has packaging made from 100% recycled packaging materials.
