Sharon Lee

Title: Sustainable Skincare Solution

Product Name:  Belif Refillable Skincare

Topic/Problem description: 

The growth of the beauty industry is followed by its negative impact on individuals, communities, entire countries, and the global environment. The growingly unsustainable practices of the cosmetic industry have taken advantage of poverty-stricken rural communities in developing countries like India and Indonesia, encouraging damaging practices like child exploitation and illegal deforestation. The beauty industry has also contributed massively to the global plastic waste problem, producing more than 120 billion units of packaging every year, of which 70% end up in landfills due to the unrecyclable nature of the materials used. Plastic waste from the beauty industry has also begun to affect the aquatic environment in the form of microbeads found in personal care products like exfoliators. Following the disastrous consequences of the unethical practices of the beauty industry, consumers are beginning to turn to sustainable alternatives. Because of this, it’s important for beauty companies to make significant changes in their products to adapt to changing consumer attitudes towards sustainability.

Solution:

One way for a company to improve their sustainable practices is to offer consumers the option to purchase refillable products. Especially with products that consumers are likely to repurchase over and over again, like skincare products. My solution to the excessive waste problem in the beauty industry is to offer consumers the option to refill their favorite skincare products instead of repeatedly making the purchase of the same product with disposable containers. I designed a system in which users can purchase a durable container for their product of choice and sanitize as well as refill the container in-store.

How can the life cycle of cosmetic products be changed to encourage more sustainable consumer habits? Link

Sustainable Skincare Solution poster