Twenty-three p.c extra waste is generated by People in December than in different months of the yr, in accordance with a 2021 evaluation by the Middle for Organic Range.
One main issue is the sheer quantity of packaged items being purchased. The Nationwide Retail Federation anticipates shoppers will set a file this vacation season, with complete spending topping $966 billion.
Whereas a few of these items may find yourself being returned, re-gifted or thrown out, the packaging and wrapping they arrive in practically all the time leads to the trash. If reward wrap is is shiny or sparkly, it incorporates plastic and cannot be recycled. Nevertheless, some corporations are dreaming of a greener Christmas and lowering waste despite — and generally due to — the vacations. Right here’s how.
1. Magnificence manufacturers are lowering plastic and utilizing full-size merchandise in Introduction calendars
Historically, Introduction calendars rely down the times main as much as Christmas with a small reward or deal with behind every numbered door. They’ve became large seasonal enterprise for corporations.
Final yr within the U.S., gross sales of status magnificence merchandise between October and December made up a 3rd of the class’s $27.5 billion annual income for the yr.
Luxurious cosmetics and skincare corporations usually promote their very own branded Introduction calendars as a solution to drive shopper engagement and showcase a wide range of their merchandise in a single go. Massive-box retailers additionally launch Introduction calendar reward units with choices from international luxurious manufacturers. More often than not, corporations are promoting sample-sized variations in non-recyclable, single-use packaging.
However some corporations are bucking the pattern.
In 2020, L’Occitane en Provence redesigned its Introduction calendar to interchange the internal plastic mould with cellulose cardboard pulp and the outer plastic wrapping with paper. The purpose, in accordance with the corporate, is to make use of 100% recyclable plastic for all packaging by 2025, lowering plastic use by 40 tons in comparison with 2019. This yr, L’Occitane is promoting a material calendar that’s absolutely reusable and likewise providing full-size merchandise in its bid to chop waste. Plus, it’s providing in-store recycling for empty packaging and is utilizing solely recyclable paper for reward purchases.
Picture courtesy of L’Occitane.
Equally, cosmetics firm Aveda has began utilizing post-consumer recycled (PCR) supplies, together with refillable bottles, for vacation units, in over 85 p.c of its bottles and jars. The corporate is making an attempt to reduce packaging and maximize the usage of recyclable and PCR supplies.
2. CPG corporations are utilizing reusable packaging with fewer labels
Calvin Klein collaborated with Copenhagen-based Pure Materials Studio to create a bioplastic pouch for reward wrapping made out of Procel, which is each recyclable and biodegradable. It will also be repurposed as a small purse-like bag after Christmas.
Bodycare firm Lush has been promoting reusable, recycled reward wrap alternate options for the previous 15 years. It calls these “Knot Wraps,” cloth wraps comprised of plastic bottles, classic textiles or natural cotton that may be reused as scarves or extra reward wrap. A number of designs are on supply from artists similar to Jasmine Floyd, an illustrator from Shropshire, England, and Daniel Sulzberg, a California-based artist who produced a Hanukkah-themed print.
Lush wrap knots on show in Glasgow. Picture courtesy of Lush.
Skincare firm Pacifica is promoting vacation reward units with typos. The corporate made a printing error on its 2023 vacation reward set packaging, altering the meant message “YOU ARE SO fairly” to “YOU ARE OS fairly.” Fairly than incurring the environmental value of reprinting, the model launched a “One Typo = One Tree” marketing campaign, which planted a tree for every typo-laden bundle.
“We work to ourselves accountable and collaborate to create options that transcend our model,” Brook Harvey-Taylor, founding father of Pacifica, stated of the marketing campaign.
Picture courtesy of Pacifica.
3. Meals & beverage corporations are reducing down on plastic packaging for presents
In 2022, Diageo-owned liquor firm Bacardi redesigned reward packs from a number of traces — together with Bacardi rum, Gray Goose vodka, Martini vermouth, Patron tequila and Dewar’s scotch — to be fully plastic-free. The spirits large desires to take away 100% of single-use plastic from its gifting vary by the tip of 2023.
This yr, Bacardi is lowering its use of cardboard reward bins by an estimated 100 tons. The corporate is phasing the elimination of cardboard to watch how customers reply to the “bare” bottles.
Picture courtesy of Bacardi.
Will it make a dent?
Firms are preventing an uphill battle. About half of all wrapping paper — about 2.3 million kilos — leads to a landfill yearly, in accordance with this oft-cited declare. Festive wrapping papers are notoriously onerous to recycle: glitter is plastic, low cost paper is unrecyclable on account of weaker fibers, and if the paper is metallic or lined in sticky tape, it may well’t be recycled.
However there’s purpose for hope: Half of all shoppers responding to an IBM survey stated they have been prepared to pay a premium for sustainable merchandise.
