Beauty’s Ingredient & Packaging Steps Towards Zero-Waste

Siita’s Monceau Body Wash is the world's first product made from 100% upcycled fragrances. The sophisticated scent combines unused and discarded eucalyptus, rose, Agikalawood, cedarwood and labdanum. It exemplifies how businesses can formulate an item with scrap ingredients, without compromising on its premium aspect.

The skincare label packages its offerings in nature-derived compostable plastics that have passed the South Korean Ministry of Environment’s certification programme. It also shreds and breaks down its own used packaging before processing it into organic compost, which contains large concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – all essential for soil fertility – and is provided to local farms and communities.

To do this, Siita has developed a new technology to accelerate the degradation of plastic from 500 years to just three months. The system maintains a high temperature, moisture level and aerobic environment, using thermal power obtained from the activities of microorganisms. This cuts the usual six-month decomposition period of biodegradable raw materials in half. By also significantly increasing the amount of plastic that can be decomposed per batch, the brand has achieved a huge reduction in the energy and costs required for the process, making large-scale sustainable degradation of the material a reality.

For more on upcycled ingredients, Stylus members can see Beauty’s Nature-Focused Future, and for further info on packaging innovations that disintegrate after serving their function, read Packaging Futures 22/23: Big Change Ahead.