rePurpose wants beauty brands to think about plastic beyond the recycling bin
Plastic packaging is important in the beauty industry and rePurpose Global wants to create impactful accountability for plastic waste made by personal care brands.
According to rePurpose, 91% of plastic waste doesn’t make it to recycling and ends up in the environment. Svanika Balasubramanian, CEO and co-founder of rePurpose Global, told CosmeticsDesign a major contributor to plastic in the environment is where the plastic in the recycling bin ends up.
Balasubramanian said rePurpose found that roughly 75% of plastic recycled in countries like the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland ends up in countries like India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
“These countries, unfortunately, don't have the necessary infrastructure to deal with their own domestic waste, let alone be this one giant garbage dump for the rest of the world,” Balasubramanian said. “That's why we're seeing so much of the waste leaking into nature.”