The Body Shop to reduce use of oil-based product packaging by 70%

The Body Shop International announced a new global initiative to reduce the use of oil-based product packaging by 70% by 2020.

To achieve this, the cosmetics company will work together with a number of technology, academic and research partners to create new ethical solutions for its products, including packaging, product design and product life-extension strategies.

“The Body Shop is a company that has pioneered different ways of thinking, a legacy we’re immensely proud of,” said Christopher Davis, international director of corporate social responsibility at the Body Shop. “We want to take action to reduce our impact on the planet, radically reinterpreting the way we sell and buy cosmetics and how our customers use them.”

“We are inviting global experts to supports us in achieving this goal, a journey that will ensure 70% of our product packaging does not contain oil-based plastics by 2020,” he explained.

As a first step towards this goal, The Body Shop signed a development partnership with California-based Newlight Technologies, which is the proprietor of AirCarbon, to try and use the material as an alternative to plastic.

AirCarbon is a thermoplastic material made by combining air with carbon that would otherwise become part of the air to produce a thermoplastic polymer that can replace oil-based plastics.  The AirCarbon™ production process is carried out at a yield that is over nine times higher than previous technologies, providing a solution that replaces oil with captured carbon.