At leading cosmetics company Blithe, there is more to their operations than creating carefully crafted Korean skincare products and building beauty routines — it’s about the transformational power these products and their foundational principles have. However, it’s not just the beauty world that Blithe Cosmetics has its eyes on revolutionizing. The company also hopes to revolutionize the world as a whole, thanks to its unprecedented and unparalleled commitment to creating sustainable beauty products and making skincare more sustainable.

Why Sustainability Is Important In Cosmetics

Even though the cosmetics industry is about looking your best, it faces an image problem of its own when it comes to the waste it produces. According to one study, the cosmetics industry produces nearly 120 billion units of plastic packaging annually — a significant majority of which is not recyclable. This represents a staggering amount of waste that ends up in landfills each year. Thankfully, companies like Blithe have revolutionized how businesses in the cosmetics industry can approach sustainability.

The team at Blithe believes that, while the quality of their products’ formulas is the start to radiant skin, achieving the ideal effects also requires well-being and self-care. For a generation of consumers who are more concerned than ever with the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions, with a recent survey showing that 78% percent of US consumers say a sustainable lifestyle is important to them, purchasing cosmetic products that align with their values for sustainability is an important part of getting that glowing skin you hope for.

Blithe’s Sustainability Initiatives

While many companies have committed to sustainability, Blithe Cosmetics has put its money where its mouth is, having implemented several measures to emphasize sustainability in Blithe’s products and operations. “We take passion in talking about their environmentally-conscious initiatives because we believe that doing so empowers our customers to engage in more responsible purchasing and disposal decisions,” shares Andrew Cho, founder of Blithe Cosmetics.

One initiative Blithe Cosmetics took to make their products more sustainable was the use of the “Green Splash” Tyvek pouch. The goal of this initiative was to reduce the solid waste produced at the end of the product’s life cycle. The Tyvek pouch allows this because it can safely be incinerated under optimal conditions, releasing water and carbon dioxide without any residue, since Tyvek is a 100% synthetic nonwoven material with high-density polyethylene fibers. Although this material is not biodegradable, the incineration process prevents it from ending up in landfills or leaching harmful chemicals into the groundwater.

Blithe has also implemented removable labels on their post-consumer recycled (PCR) containers. As a result, labels can be removed from the container without leaving any sticky residue, at which point they can be disposed of separately, and the container itself rinsed out and recycled. This method significantly streamlines the recycling process, making it easier for consumers with an environmentalist streak to make environmentally responsible decisions.

Furthermore, Blithe has found ways to swap eco-friendly alternatives for some of the more environmentally destructive materials used in the construction industry. For example, Blithe uses soy ink printing as opposed to traditional, petroleum-based ink. Since petroleum-based inks release harmful volatile organic compounds to the environment while printing, soy ink is a much more eco-friendly alternative. Blithe also uses paper shipping material, which offers benefits in terms of renewability, recyclability, and compostability.

If leading companies like Blithe continue to commit to sustainability initiatives to reduce their environmental impact, there can be a more eco-friendly future for the cosmetics industry. “At Blithe, we incorporate production methods, clean energy, harvesting techniques, and ingredient sourcing that all play into a mission to improve wasteful or unethical practices,” Cho concludes.