Lorraine Dallmeyer, a chartered environmentalist and CEO of Formula Botanica, argues that recyclability and circularity are not the same thing. Recyclability is often greenwashing, she says, citing examples from LVMH, L'Oréal, and Beiersdorf. Most plastics can't actually be recycled and end up incinerated instead.
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The term circularity can confuse people. It's sometimes really hard to imagine the products that we buy as shoppers being in a loop. So take beauty products, for instance. There aren't many ways that we can make the ingredients in our formulation circular. Although, as we learned on the podcast last week when I interviewed Harry McIlraith of the Upcycled Beauty Company, we are literally never going to run out of food waste to turn into cosmetic ingredients. And take packaging. So packaging is really easy to understand with respect to circularity. You use it, you clean it, you fill it again. That's the circular economy. However, it turns out that the beauty industry and many other industries alongside it are starting to use the word circularity, when actually what they're referring to is recyclability. Now, recycling is important, absolutely, but it is also the least best option when it comes to the circular economy. And in my opinion, if you're confusing those two words, circularity and recyclability, or you're pretending very hard that having recyclable material means that your beauty product is circular, then you are greenwashing. So in today's episode, I'm going to have a bit of a rant and I'm going to try to set the record straight once and for all by stating loud and proud that circularity is not the same as recyclability. 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. So before I get up on my soapbox again, let's start by asking the question, what is circularity? Well, one definition that I found online from the Ellen MacArthur foundation, which I rather like, is that the circular economy is a system where materials never become waste and where nature is regenerated. The UN further defines the circular economy as giving incentives to reusing products rather than scrapping them and then extracting new resources. However, and this is a big however, these are not the general definitions of the circular economy that people are working towards when they talk about this concept of circularity. In fact, you can visit any of the hundreds of websites out there that try to define the circular economy, many of them run by big corporates, and at some point, virtually all of them are going to mention recycling, like Wikipedia. Take Wikipedia as an example, which says that the circular economy involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and yes, recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible. That word recycling comes right at the end of that sentence because it is the least desirable option in the circular economy. After all, it's much better to take your beauty packaging, clean it and use it again than it is to recycle it. And when you delve a bit deeper in the definitions of the circular economy, you discover really and truly that it all comes back to plastics. I don't think that's going to surprise you. As I discussed in a recent podcast episode number 188, if you're interested in going back in the archives, plastics can only really be recycled once or a couple of times. That's not circular. There's no constant loop involved there where you can only recycle your material once. And let's also not forget that much of our plastic waste is incinerated. Pretty sure that burning plastic doesn't fall under the definition of circularity. But these slightly skewed definitions of circularity have effectively given whole industries an out, including the beauty industry, and almost everyone is letting them get away with it. And apart from, interestingly, one magazine called Grist who published an article in August 2023 about a Seattle conference which was held last year called Circularity 23. And one of the attendees of that conference was the head of Greenpeace, Canada's Oceans and Plastics campaign, who said the infamous words. I came away feeling like circularity has become synonymous with recycling. And honestly, when I read those words, I felt such relief that someone else was seeing this happen and calling it out. I felt quite alone here on my soapbox when telling people that circularity and recyclability are not necessarily the same thing. I even had to bring this up again recently in one of my sustainability advisory roles, because if I don't say the words circularity and recyclability are not the same thing. I'm starting to question if most companies claiming circularity are now just actually greenwashing, because this term circularity is being dumbed down by a lot of companies. And the beauty industry plays a big part in this too. They're taking the lowest common denominator they can for the definition of circularity. And by that I mean recyclability, and they're latching onto it. So the term circularity is being co opted to mean something completely different to its original meaning. So let me give you just a few examples that I found within seconds of looking in Google News. So, for instance, lvmh, the beauty giant, is accelerating its move to circular plastics to make premium perfume caps and cosmetic cream jars. Or l', Oreal, when they were asked about their so called circular goals, said that they're looking at advanced recycling, broadening the possibility to have circular plastics. There's that oxymoron again. Circular plastics. What does that even mean? Or Beiersdorf, one of the world's largest personal care manufacturers in Germany, when they were asked about circularity, they answered, the recyclability of our packaging and ingredients is significant to us. I could actually really easily record an hour long podcast just to read out all the sound bites in press releases from beauty brands who view circularity as recyclability. But this is a short podcast opinion piece, so I'll let you off the hook this time. Listen. Ultimately, recyclability, it is important. The lack of global infrastructure to cope with plastic recycling requirements and the lack of political willpower around the world to turn off the plastic tap. They're really serious problems for all of us. Of course we need to be trying to recycle everything we can. And of course it's good that recyclability is on the agenda. But let's not try to pretend that we're creating a circular economy. If what cosmetics companies are really talking about is just trying to make their plastics recyclable in the first place. If we want a beauty industry where materials never become waste, going back to that first definition I read out, then we need to start by using the right words to describe what we're doing. So my challenge to you for this week is to challenge beauty brands when they claim that they're circular. If they are genuinely committed to the circular economy, believe me, they'll be very happy to talk about the work that they're doing. But if they're just greenwashing and they're trying to go for the least worst option, then hearing your challenge will be a very, very good thing for them. 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.
