Make a difference in the new year with eco-friendly packaging
Enter the roaring twenties in style while also being eco-friendly, because nothing is hotter than not killing the planet. You may be surprised to find that there are so many little ways that you can change up your beauty routine that can have a huge impact. If every individual made little changes in their everyday life major strides could be made, and our favorite girl Greta would not have to be begging our world leaders to do their jobs.
Think about how much you throw away a day, think about how much plastic. It honestly is ridiculous. Think about how many of your everyday products come in plastic packaging. So, where did this start? Well, during World War One hygiene was heavily stressed to avoid disease, these habits stuck with citizens and pretty soon companies found a new industry with endless commercial possibilities. Originally however these self-care products were sold in glass and tin containers. During the mid-century there was a plastics boom, and many companies quickly switched to plastic for many reasons. The first being transportation, it was much more costly and tedious to ship glass containers then to ship plastic containers, no worry of breaking and the plastic could be molded into any shape you could think of.
Another reason was that lifestyles were changing, no longer were people using rivers and free-standing tubs to cleanse, indoor plumbing was becoming a norm, people nationwide were using showers and with that came changes in formula and changes in needs. Now people could use gels and liquids that could go down the drain, but they also needed bottles that could survive a fall and constant water contact. Companies soon found that the characteristics of plastics could fulfill all their needs at a much lower cost.
So, where does that leave us now, the personal care industry is a ninety-billion-dollar market. With such a large growth comes a lot of waste, which makes up about seventy percent of our landfills. What’s even worse, the plastic container of baby wash that was used when you were born will outlive you by over 900 years.
Why are these big companies still producing so much plastic waste? Because corporate greed duh. It boils down to cost, you can buy plastic molds in bulk for far less then eco-friendly packaging. This makes it harder for smaller startups to create products and compete because the costs are so different.
So, starting this new year let’s all do our part to protect our precious environment, check out our favorite eco-friendly packaging below and let us know your favorites in the comments.
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