Pact Collective fights beauty packaging waste with cross-industry nonprofit action

29 Mar 2022 --- US-based nonprofit Pact Collective is being heralded for its work collecting, processing and helping redesign hard-to-recycle plastics for the beauty sector. Environmental personal care company Athr Beauty says the NGOs’ work is the best alternative to major recycling player TerraCycle, branded a greenwashing scheme by environmental activists.

Pact Collective works by collecting packaging materials unsuitable for traditional waste management streams and using state-of-the-art technology to recycle them. It also consults with leading industry companies on redesigning these packages to reduce landfilling and energy usage. 

Speaking to PackagingInsights, Pact Collective’s program director Carly Snider says: “The health of the planet is at a critical point, and while the beauty industry has been increasingly cleaning up its ingredients, it is largely ignoring its role in petrochemical extraction, energy/resource consumption and waste.” 

“Pact wants to empower parties that make and sell products to take responsibility and not pass the buck on environmental packaging sustainability.” 

“We partner with stakeholders to reduce, recycle, educate, innovate and drive toward circularity. Our goals are to collect hard-to-recycle beauty packaging so that it (or its parts) can be recycled whenever possible and educate and engage beauty industry stakeholders to make more informed sustainable decisions.” 

Pact offers mail back schemes for beauty packaging in the US.Not for the money 
Athr Beauty says that Pact’s nonprofit status and its work to drive fundamental change in the packaging sector-led it to switch away from TerraCycle, which has received numerous allegations of fraud, mismanagement and misleading advertising over the past year. 

“This the crux of the issue for us: While TerraCycle is a great last-resort recycling option, it’s not a replacement for sustainable, easily recyclable packaging made from repurposed materials,” says Athr Beauty. 

“Unfortunately, TerraCycle has become a way for brands to continue making unsustainable, incredibly wasteful, landfill-bound, virgin plastic packaging. This is why we made the switch – Pact is more than just a band-aid solution and is beauty specific.” 

Snider also says Pact was founded as a nonprofit, so its financial bottom line was not the main driver in our decision-making. “TerraCycle is a for-profit company. While TerraCycle focuses on waste across many industries, we are beauty specific and focused on growing a collective partnership within our industry to drive change together. Our power is in creating a brand-agnostic industry-wide solution that centers on transparency and education,” she says. 

“Of course, we need a fiscally sustainable organization as well. Pact’s funding comes from our founding members: Credo, MOB Beauty, HBC, and our 90+ current members. We work hard to keep costs down to ensure all beauty stakeholders can participate in our collective programming. We will be accepting tax-deductible contributions soon.” 

Beauty veterans 
Hard-to-recycle plastics can be collected, processed and redesigned with the help of Pact.Pact has powerful visibility into its sorting partners’ operations, Snider explains. “We know the makeup of each Pact bin shipped to them – how much plastic and what kind of plastic, how much glass, etc. We are fortunate to work with the sorting partners to find end-buyers for the materials so they can achieve their highest and best use.”

Snider also says Pact’s specialization in beauty packaging makes it particularly effective in tackling waste, as it can focus all R&D on one particular industry and its players.

“We are beauty veterans committed to addressing industry’s packaging issues. We have plenty to tackle right here in beauty, so we have no plans to expand beyond this space. We will evolve our program to meet our members’ needs and sustainability challenges.”

The poison problem 
As with many areas of the packaging sector, recycled plastics often contain chemicals harmful to human and environmental health. 

“Unfortunately, there is the risk that recycled plastics may contain contaminants or harmful additives. We would like to see recyclers and packaging manufacturers work to clean up the process as best they can. A good start: eliminate chemicals known to be persistent, bioaccumulative, or toxic, like PFAS.”

Currently, numerous US states are imposing bans on PFAS, following longstanding evidence that the chemicals leach into the environment and are linked to serious health problems like cancer. 

Snider concludes the NGOs’ work is a single instrument for industry and policymakers to use these myriad issues arising from the packaging sector. 

“Pact’s collection program is one ‘tool in the toolbox’ for greater packaging sustainability. We aim to tackle misinformation and greenwashing in the beauty industry through our education platform. Pact will push for multi-stakeholder communication and transparency.” 

By Louis Gore-Langton