Apart from the price tag at the register, there is an environmental cost to cosmetics and beauty products too. This cost ranges from the product ingredients, creation, the packaging, and even the air-miles to get the item to the end user.
Facts:
- Adult women (and not only women…) use approximately 12 cosmetic products per day, teenagers can use as many as 17.
- It is estimated that more than 400 million tonnes of chemical substances are produced each year and part of this is related to the production and commercialization of cosmetics.
- According to National Geographic, 700 000 tonnes of pollutants are released into the air daily, partly from home products, partly from cosmetics and hair-dyes. Somebody living in an industrialized country may be exposed to up to 500 pollutants.
The Ingredients
Beauty products containing the “dirty dozen” are bad for your health and the health of fish and wildlife and they are generally manufactured in chemical plants that cause their own pollution.
- BHA and BHT
- Coal Tar Dyes – colours listed as CI-##### (followed by a 5 digit number)
- DEA, TEA, or MEA related ingredients
- Dibutyl Phthalatte
- Formaldehyde and Formaldehyde releasing preservatives
- Parabens
- Parfum (aka fragrance)
- PEG Compunds
- Petrolatum
- Siloxanes
- Sodium Laureth Sulfate
- Triclosan
Many of these have carcinogenic properties, while others are endocrine disruptors.
None of these are biodegradable and ultimately will end up in the water either through bathing, swimming, sanitation, or during the laundry cycle. This has led to several cases of abnormalities in fish and wildlife. In Lake Erie, salmon were found to have thyroids up to a million times bigger than normal. In the 1990s in Florida, 67% of panthers were found to have sexual abnormalities.
The answer to avoiding these chemicals seems obvious – to buy natural skincare products. Unfortunately this can be more difficult than it seems, due to what is called green washing.
Generally greenwashing is when a company hides its actions behind a pro-environmental front, by giving disinformation so they seem environmentally responsible. However it can also refer to hiding ingredients, when a company claims it is natural or organic when only a percentage of it’s ingredients are. This also can happen with fair trade ingredients.
Microbeads
Microbeads are tiny plastic balls ranging from 1 millimetre to 1 micro-millimetre that are in many products from toothpaste, shampoo, face washes, and some cleaning agents. Several countries, including Canada, USA, UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, have signed bills to ban the sale of products containing microbeads (#banthebead), so products containing these beads may not be seen on shelves in the coming years. Ingredients to watch for include but are not limited to: Polyethylene (PE), Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA), Polypropylene (PP), and Nylon.
Packaging
Most cosmetics and beauty products come in plastic packaging. The first thing to do is to check if it can be recycled. Although both plastic and glass are recyclable, glass can only be recycled into more glass, while plastic can be used for fleece, carpet filling, and so on. Some companies have taken the added step of using biodegradable packaging for their containers. The type of packaging a company will use comes from consumer demand.
The impact goes far beyond the type of container a product is sold in. There is also the packaging involved in shipping and wrapping. There is a belief that glass containers are the best for the environment as they are not as harsh to make. Since glass is fragile, it has to be packed securely when it is shipped, and many companies still use Styrofoam peanuts. Even those that use a more eco-friendly material, they may pack in excess to secure the glass is not damaged in transit. Weight is also a drawback; as glass is heavier than plastic a carton of glass containers (with safety packaging) will weigh down a plane, train, or automobile more than the plastic equivalent, and a heavier vehicle will use more gasoline.
Air Miles
There is an increasing number of people who are opting for natural or organic beauty products, which is great as it will keep people away from the “dirty dozen” but even this is not without it’s dark side. Although it is fantastic to use Costa Rican Ylang Ylang, Acai berries from the rainforests of Peru, Dead Sea bath salts from Israel, or Japanese Sea Kelp, if these ingredients come from their homeland and are packaged at a factory in Sydney or New Jersey, the air miles in the composition of the product are already very high, and that is before you buy it in your local store in London, or order it online and have it shipped to Paris.
These are some of the environmental impacts that your beauty products could have on you and the world outside, so be aware of the consequences and be conscious while shopping.