Half a million plastic bottles avoid NZ landfill thanks to solid beauty bars
Ethique is edging towards its plastic-free planet Earth vision announcing today it has eliminated half a million
personal care plastic bottles from landfill.
Founded by aspiring Cantabrian scientist Brianne West in 2012, the young formulation whizz is taking on the cosmetic
giants and challenging them to drop the plastic packaging.
Ms West formulated a range of solid beauty products that do not require water thus eliminating the need for a vessel.
“Rival beauty products in the shampoo and conditioner category can contain as much as 90 per cent ‘aqua’ so naturally
they need a container to hold all that excessive liquid.
“As a company, our goal is to eliminate everyday household plastic bottles. If this is achieved, we will be one step
closer to living plastic-free and that bit closer to reducing unnecessary waste to landfill.”
This year marks the milestone of eliminating the planet of 500,000 plastic bottles, a figure that Ms West hopes to
double by the end of the year.
“Globally, around one million plastic bottles are purchased per minute yet scarily only 12 per cent of plastic is
recycled around the world, leading to most of it heading to landfill, or even worse, to our oceans,” she says.
Not only does Ethique not use plastic to wrap its products, the company also uses fully compostable packaging for all
its products.
“It’s one thing for consumers to make a choice about purchasing ethically and sustainably but I believe that businesses
should be responsible for the entire lifecycle of their product - including the packaging.
“You can’t continue to profit off a product that has a detrimental effect on the planet or the people who make it,” says
West.
Each solid bar of shampoo, conditioner or other product can save about a litre of water, as well as the plastic bottle
and can last three to five times longer than the conventional product.
One solid shampoo bar quickly morphed into a range of over 30 beauty and cleaning products including solid shampoos,
conditioners, cleansers, scrubs, moisturisers, serums, a self-tanning bar, pet shampoo and men’s shampoo/shaving bar.
The concentrated solid bar products can often last up to 12 months and only needs the addition of water in the shower to
achieve the desired result.