The Beauty Industry Depends on Plastic. Can it Change?

When my grandmother was a little girl, soap came in solid bar form, perfume came in glass, haircare came in tins or jars.  Soaps came in bar form. Then along came plastic.

By the mid-2oth century, this new-age, light, and flexible material was being exploited by the personal care industry, among others. Companies custom molded durable packaging into whatever shapes they wanted and shipped their products further and more easily. For a number of reasons, plastic was the more logical choice.. 

Nobody considered the true cost of using a material—plastic— that will never break down to make products that we use for a short time—sometimes even a few minutes—and then toss in the garbage. 

For decades and decades since then, the booming $500 billion per year global personal care industry has relied on plastic for its packaging. According to Euromonitor International, in 2018, almost 7.9 billion units of rigid plastic were produced just for beauty and personal care products in the US alone.    

But what about Recycling?. Only 9% of all plastic produced—not just for the beauty industry—is actually repurposed. And we all know what that means: At some point, it will end up in landfills and maybe even our oceans. . 

But there is good news. The general public—you and me—are demanding more sustainable products from companies. We want to stock our pantries, showers, and medicine cabinets with planet-friendly options.

We’re seeing more and more response to this demand. Some companies are cutting back on plastic packaging, saying that it’s too expensive to go cold turkey. But others, especially smaller and newer ones, are leading the way and building business models based on eschewing plastics entirely. Determining the best plastic-free experience simply becomes part of the product development phase. 

As you know, etee is one of those companies leading the way on the plastic-free frontier. We’re happy to offer planet-friendly options like our new, plastic-free moisturizing hair mask. 

The science nerds behind the plant-based formulation—bless them—say it’s perfect for moisturizing dry, damaged, over-processed hair of all types. It’s a rinse-out or leave-in mask which basically means anyone can adjust the application depending on what kind of deep conditioning your hair needs. 

Want to give it a try?

Mask on, mask up,

- Chantal + team etee