Sustainable packaging hot topic at industry events in 2011

With Organic Monitor predicting an increase in the take up of sustainable packaging initiatives by beauty companies in 2011, the topic promises to a focus of industry events this year.

“Sustainable packaging is becoming a very important issue for beauty companies,” Amarjit Sahota, Director of Organic Monitor told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com. “It was a major focus of our previous Sustainable Cosmetics Summit in Paris in October 2010 and we will be covering this topic again at our upcoming North American edition on 12-14 May 2011 in New York.”

As well as an interactive workshop offering practical advice to companies looking to adopt sustainable packaging, the Paris edition of the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit looked at recycling, reusing and reducing packaging, together with bioplastics and eco-design.

Sustainable packaging at SCS in 2011

The 2011 North American edition of the summit will be looking at practical approaches to reduce the environmental impact of cosmetic products, through several sessions in the conference programme dedicated to this topic.

The sessions will explore the positive impact of cosmetics products using the cradle-to-cradle design approach, and case studies of Aveda, the largest user of PCR packaging in the beauty industry, and Pangea, a user of compostable packaging, will be presented.

Organic Monitor said that in addition to these confirmed topics, one or two more are likely to be added to the programme, including a drive by retailers to reduce product packaging.

Luxe Pack in Green introduced in Shanghai

Luxe Pack in Green, a forum for luxury sustainable packaging solutions, was a feature of the luxury packaging event Luxe Pack Monaco in 2010, and has been introduced to the Shanghai edition of the event for 2011.

Luxe Pack Shanghai on 29-30 March 2011 will also include a forum exploring China’s legislative approach to reducing excess packaging, providing information for companies looking to sell their products in the fast-growing domestic market.

The legislation applies to cosmetics packaging, and limits the number of permitted packaging layers to three, restricts the amount of headspace which the package may contain and specifies a maximum ratio between the cost of the packaging and the retail product price.