Here at La Saponaria we have always been committed to using light and sustainable packaging for our cosmetics but now we have taken a step further: we want to replace all virgin plastic bottles with more sustainable materials.

We truly love our world and want to do everything possible to become increasingly zero waste, plastic-free, and sustainable. In this article, we will discuss La Saponaria's choices in terms of packaging:

• No more virgin plastic
• What can we do for a world without plastic?
  
  • Solid cosmetics
  • Glass
  • Recycled aluminum
  • Bioplastic
  • Cellulose acetate
  • Recycled plastic re-bottle
  • Ocean plastic
    
    • Our small part in cleaning up the seas
  • Rehydratable powdered cosmetics
• Being more sustainable from all perspectives

No more virgin plastic

Let's not beat around the bush: plastic is comfortable, cheap, resistant. It is no coincidence that it is one of the most used materials in the world for many purposes and it is no coincidence that it is the most used material in the cosmetic field to contain creams, shampoos and all products that need a container. This is because it is a stable material, it does not interact with the liquids it contains and has a very long shelf life, it only degrades completely over hundreds of years. For all these reasons, from 1950 to 2015 its production grew from 2 million tons to 380.

The problem? It is obtained from petroleum processing, a terrible supply chain both from an environmental and human rights point of view, and only a part of the plastic we use is properly eliminated or recycled, while the rest ends up in landfills or in the environment, forever!

Let us also add that we produce too much plastic in Italy and in Europe, and its correct disposal is expensive: this is where the huge problem of illicit waste trafficking begins. In 2019, Greenpeace reported that more than 1,300 tons of plastic waste had been illegally shipped from Italy to Malaysia in the first nine months of that year. Polieco, the National Consortium for the recycling of waste from polyethylene-based goods, has for several years denounced the phenomenon of illicit trafficking which does not only concern Asian countries, increasingly export destinations for the West, but also European countries which to be reached with greater possibilities of evading controls.

What can the solution be? As consumers we can always choose alternative materials to plastic, for example by making zero waste choices, preferring different and more sustainable materials, and that's what we also want to do as producers!

What can we do for a world without plastic?

Here at La Saponaria we have an ambitious project: to abandon all virgin plastic bottles in favor of more sustainable and green materials. Here are all the solutions we have adopted so far.

Solid cosmetics

We started right here, from soap! Our solid soap, made with first choice ingredients, good for those who use it and with a very low environmental impact, could only have a 100% eco-compatible recycled cardboard pack. And it is possible to find in all our Biostories, our company store and many of our retailers, soap by the cut, to totally avoid the use of any packaging!

Over time we have then greatly expanded our line of solids, now we have solids for body care from the ends of the hair to that of the feet:

• the Insolids: our solid shampoos and conditioners. All products are contained in paper and cardboard boxes
• the Wonder Pop Line which offers many products for face care, from cleansers, scrubs, make-up remover butter and super concentrated masks. All the products are contained in paper and cardboard boxes, while the masks have a jar in PLA, certified 100% eco-friendly and can be disposed of in wet containers
• the Almond and Ginger shower soap which is also a scrub, contained in a recycled paper box
• solid creams, five different body creams for all uses and all needs contained in a bag of corn starch that can be used in organic waste and in a small recycled paper box
• Solid Biodeo, our certified organic, zero waste and plastic free natural deodorants that can be used without a container or inserted inside the Kiima reusable applicator, to no longer have disposable plastic!

Here you can find all our solid and plastic free cosmetics.

Glass

Glass is a noble material: it has natural origins, in fact it comes from sand processing, and it is infinitely recyclable! For this reason, its use is in full zero waste philosophy. We have always used this material to contain many of our products: in our opinion, blue glass is the best material to contain essential oils.

Glass in general is excellent for containing oils: for example, in glass we find almond oil, argan oil, vegetable crystals for hair. Contained in the glass we also have all the creams, active waters and face serums of the Constitutional Face Line and the mouthwashes of the Bio&Smile Line.

Recycled aluminum

This is also an extremely interesting material, and fully adheres to the zero waste philosophy. Aluminum is a very light and versatile metal, used all over the world because it is extremely ductile and useful for making long-lasting goods and packaging. Its big plus? It is easily recyclable: it is estimated that 70% of all aluminum ever produced worldwide is still in circulation!

We have chosen this material to contain our organic hand creams, officinal balms, shea butter and Wonderwhite whitening treatment.

Bioplastic

Bioplastic is a polyethylene material, a material derived from sugar cane instead of petroleum: it is therefore a "bio-based" material, obtained from plant material, therefore of biological origin, and does not include no components of fossil origin (coal or oil). They are renewable sources: the sugar cane from which the bioplastic of our bottles is made is grown in Brazil, in sustainable crops with low use of water and low environmental impact. At the end of its life, the bottle can be recycled in the plastic collection.

We have therefore chosen to use this material, much greener than normal plastic, for all our bottles of our liquid shampoos (which, we like to remind you, are concentrated and therefore have a very long life) of our conditioners, scrubs and hair masks, of our body creams and cleansers from the Roots Line, of our Eye Contour from the Wow Line. Even the bottles of shampoo and detergent from the SativAction Men's Line and of our  intimate cleanser and shower gel Mediterranean are made of bioplastic, as are the packs of Aloe juice and body scrub and the tubes of our toothpastes.

Cellulose acetate

Did you know that an ordinary plastic toothbrush takes up to 1,000 years to decompose? And that 3.4 billion toothbrushes are produced every year in the world? In Italy alone, if everyone followed the dentists' recommendations to change toothbrushes every 3-4 months, we would produce 240 million toothbrushes, 2.4 million kg of plastic waste!

Looking for an alternative to the disposable plastic toothbrush must therefore become a priority for everyone. There are many alternative toothbrushes, but the truth is that the plastic toothbrush remains the most comfortable to use for many.

That's why we offer toothbrushes in cellulose acetate, a material made from wood pulp and cotton flake, totally natural, 100% biodegradable, sustainable and which allows you to have the same comfort as a plastic toothbrush: it does not rot, it is ergonomic, it is tasteless. The handle of this toothbrush, if accidentally dispersed in the environment, has a duration of 4 years (compared to the 1000 that the plastic toothbrush takes) but the most interesting thing is that we will never have to worry about throwing the handle away or recycling it! With the interchangeable heads we ensure an almost eternal life, thus managing to impact the environment 92% less with each toothbrush change.

Recycled plastic re-bottle

How to ensure that used plastic is no longer considered waste but is treated as a resource? We can do this by trying to encourage recycling as much as possible! Precisely this makes re-bottle plastic a very interesting material: it is in fact post-consumer recycled plastic.

In fact, normal recycled plastic often derives from industrial waste. The re-bottle plastic, on the other hand, derives from the processing of the plastic that we throw away in separate waste collection. If there were an increase in the demand for this material, less and less plastic would be dispersed into the environment or would end up in some illegal landfill in the southern hemisphere.

That's why we always try to use this material wherever possible! We have chosen it for all our Pure Actives, for all our hydrolates and to contain many of our oils and raw materials for self-production.

Ocean plastic

Among all our materials, this is the one that makes us proudest: sea plastic! It's plastic collected in the oceans made available for a new life! The sea is full of plastic and if we do nothing, according to the World Economic Forum, by 2050 the plastic circulating in the oceans will weigh more than the fish that live there.

The problem is complex and cannot be tackled from just one point of view. It is not enough to avoid producing plastic waste. On the one hand, we must fight to prevent plastic from ending up in the seas, studying collection systems in rivers for example, and demanding better waste management from individual states. But we also have to take care of collecting all that plastic that has accumulated, bringing it to the ground, sorting it, processing it and making it available for use again.

The Mirtilla cleansing mousse and the shaving mousse have a sea plastic bottle.

Our small part in cleaning up the seas

Here at La Saponaria we organized a day in collaboration with Sea Shepherd, an association that has been fighting for the defense of the oceans for 40 years, which we called Operation Plastic Sea: on 25 September 2020 we went to clean up the beach of Fiorenzuola di Focara, jewel of the San Bartolo Natural Park in the province of Pesaro. In just over an hour we have collected more than 100 kilos of waste. it was just a drop in the ocean, but without that drop the ocean would be smaller!

Rehydratable powdered cosmetics

At La Saponaria we went one step further: how to have liquid textures while avoiding disposable bottles? We have found a zero waste and plastic free solution in this case too: they are powdered cosmetics to rehydrate! The line is called Eco-Pow(d)er and contains shower gel, shampoo and hand soap powder to rehydrate, formulated with natural ingredients that take care of skin, hair and our wonderful planet! And why are Eco powders so revolutionary? Because every time you use a sachet of Eco-Pow(d)er you avoid a disposable plastic bottle: by adding simple water, the formulas rehydrate and become shampoo, shower gel and liquid hand soaps with an even more virtuous and sustainable history of traditional ones! Here's how it works:

Our powder cosmetics do not need plastic packaging, thus reducing the production of CO2 and avoiding the dispersion of plastic material in the environment.

The special powder formulas are formulated with 99% less water than a traditional product. This means that during transport a sachet of eco-powder weighs less and takes up less space than a traditional bottle, thus saving a lot of C02. Find out more about Eco-Pow(d)er and rehydrating powder cosmetics.

Being more sustainable from all perspectives

Packaging is not the only aspect we are working on! We really love our world and try to be sustainable at 360°. Therefore, it is not enough for us to create organic cosmetics with a low environmental impact both from the point of view of the formulas and from that of the packaging, but we also take care of other aspects, those that are not usually thought of, but which have a huge impact on the environment, such as logistics.

In fact, for some time now, we have adopted new pallets in recycled paper to replace the classic wooden ones. Our packages are totally plastic free: before we used corn chips for packaging, now we have opted to wrap our products in recycled paper, an even greener solution. Even the tape we use to close our parcels is now 100% paper, easier to dispose of and recycle. Even in our offices we have many tricks, from separate waste collection, to the coffee machine that does not dispense disposable cups, up to the water dispenser where we can fill the bottle, our laboratory then has a green production, it is powered by energy 100% renewable and is super energy efficient. Here we use energy-saving technologies and have created a circular production system capable of minimizing processing waste: our laboratory is designed to consume as little consumption as possible and to produce very little waste material.

We truly love our world and every day we are committed to safeguarding it. 💚