When you see the title of this article, I can see you rolling your eyes… and in your head, a little voice whispering to you: “Again! I’m still hearing about Up-cycling!” Yes, of course. Last year’s hot topic, up-cycling will be more than a trend for the next few years in the cosmetic field. And we will see more and more requirements for up-cycled ingredients and/or packaging in development specifications.
Following a specific request to develop a range of cosmetic products containing “50% upcycled ingredients”, the Labosphere laboratory wondered about the technical and regulatory feasibility of the request and conducted its investigation.
The definition
Up-cycling or over-cycling is a responsible concept aiming at valorising waste destined to be thrown away into value-added products.
Can eco-products be included in this definition? It is up to each individual to interpret what is really waste and ecoproducts can be included…
This concept was born to overcome a problem of overconsumption, but not only! It creates a new value chain in a win-win system.
For example, producers (especially in the food industry) can benefit from an additional source of income by reselling waste and the cosmetics industry can benefit from a new offer.
This is not a new principle either, the packaging industry is already well ahead on the subject, as well as other industries.
For the cosmetics industry, even if there are no regulations in force today, not misleading the consumer is a “sine qua non” condition.
What do we mean by up-cycled cosmetic ingredients?
Labosphere questioned a dozen suppliers on the raw materials claimed to be “up-cycled” in their catalogues and analysed …
