Lorraine Dallmeyer on why beauty brands struggle to sell upcycled ingredients despite the pitch: about 1.3 billion tonnes of food waste yearly, but the word "waste" itself turns shoppers away. Brands need to stop hiding it and start owning it.
The beauty industry has many sustainability challenges, but one of the biggest ones is the enormous astronomical, in fact, use of ingredients. And when the industry is producing hundreds of millions, if not billions of personal care products every year, just imagine how much material needs to go into making them. And this is, of course, also why biotechnology is starting to skyrocket in beauty. And I have no doubt that biotech will play a big role in the future of our cosmetics. But one other big shift that we're starting to see is the move towards upcycled ingredients. Now, February 2024 really has been Upcycled Ingredient Month here on the podcast, as I've interviewed Thomas Kerfoot of Inkey Ingredients and then Terence Chung of FRU Cosmetics to talk about the ways that they're sourcing, using and incorporating waste streams, particularly from fruit, to create beautiful ingredients that can be part of our cosmetics. And I really do hope that you're feeling just as inspired about upcycling as I am. But Terence raised an interesting point last week which I want to explore in today's podcast. He said that some beauty shoppers may not like the negative connotations around waste. And he rightly said no one wants to feel like we've fished waste out of the bin or the trash and put it in our cosmetics. Which poses quite an interesting dilemma when you think about it. Not necessarily for formulators, but perhaps more so for marketers. After all, some of us want to shout from the rooftops about our sustainability credentials. But would the idea of putting waste on your face potentially harm sales? So that's the topic I'm going to explore in this week's podcast. Hi, it's Lorraine Dallmeyer, chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my Green Beauty opinions in which I share my takeaways from the podcast interview we released last week and set you a challenge to make the green beauty sector a better place. If you want to be the first to hear all of my latest episodes, make sure you subscribe to this podcast. Let's look at some food waste statistics firstly. Now, are you sitting down? Because honestly, this is going to shock you to your core if you didn't already know this. So here we go. Roughly one third of the world's food goes to waste. One third. That's about 1.3 billion tons of food waste every single year. How shocking is that? And that food is thrown out by supermarkets, shops, households, producers, everyone in the supply chains involved. And when you consider it. That statistic is even more horrific when you think about how many hundreds of millions of people around the world struggle with hunger and malnourishment. It's just so wasteful. And in fact, it's such a big issue that the UN even has a sustainable development goal, specifically around food waste. So UN Sustainable Development Goal number 12, which is all around sustainable consumption and production, specifies that by 2030, we must aim to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post harvest losses. So clearly, using waste in whatever way we can should be our priority. Which is why it's amazing to see so many people talk about upcycling in the beauty industry. But what connotations do you have around the word waste? I bet you don't hear the word waste and feel hugely positive. It doesn't give you that sort of warm, glowing feeling inside, right? And you know, if you look up the word waste in the dictionary, the definition they give you is unwanted matter. And that same dictionary definition makes that reference to nuclear waste, to human waste, excrement, and a toxic industrial waste. So it doesn't really paint the loveliest of pictures, does it? So are upcycled ingredients then going to be a marketing challenge for the beauty industry? Well, I'm not honestly that convinced that most shoppers are hugely interested in the sustainability credentials of their cosmetics at the moment, which is, of course, just simply not okay in 2024. So I can understand that beauty brands might not choose to tell the world about their use of waste byproducts in their formulations. And yet, you know, we somehow need to make waste sexy. So what may happen is that more and more beauty brands will start to use upcycled ingredients. And I certainly expect to see a large growing focus on upcycling from the simply ginormous global cosmetic ingredients sector, given the huge potential to create beautiful ingredients from food byproducts. But I do wonder if people won't necessarily publicly talk about upcycling that much. At least maybe not to start with. Have you ever heard of the term green hushing? Because it's gaining traction in environmental circles at the moment, as an increasing number of companies are apparently keeping their environmental plans and their sustainability projects silent in order to avoid scrutiny. Again, not great in 2024, really, when so many people demand transparency. But I wonder if this could be an example. This idea of not telling people about the fact that you're using waste in your formulations might be an example of potential green hushing in order to ensure customers don't get turned off by the idea of putting waste on their face. But honestly, I think beauty brands should talk about upcycling and I think they should be loud and proud about it. Upcycling should form part of all marketing and branding initiatives. And honestly, I think these bold pioneers such as Froo will eventually start to attract even more customers to them once they realize the benefits of putting waste on your face. So my challenge to you for this week is to start seeking out beauty brands that use upcycled ingredients and to support them for their initiatives. And if you're a formulator yourself, and I know that many formulators listen to me every single week, then I also encourage you to start working with upcycled ingredients. You will be amazed at the types of cosmetic ingredients available to you which are diverted that material from being wasted. So let's make waste sexy for beauty in 2024 and beyond. Thank you for listening to my green beauty opinions. Remember to visit the Formula botanica website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you haven't subscribed yet to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast, please make sure you do so now in your favorite podcast app. Leave me a five star review if you enjoy the conversations. I host and I'll be back soon with my next episode. Sam.
EP249. Why retailers are asking for proof—and what it means for your beauty products
EP247. How to build a heritage beauty brand - Evelyn Akande from Kanda Natural
