UPCYCLED INGREDIENTS
35
Finding function and value in upcycled ingredients
Eric Reynolds, Alessandro Izzo – CP Kelco
During a 1994 interview, the German engineer Reiner Pilz is credited with coining the word upcycling when he said, “Recycling? I call it down-cycling. They smash bricks, they smash everything. What we need is upcycling, where old products are given more value, not less.” What he meant was, with recycling, the
properties of the material may be lost as it is broken down. There is reduced functionality so expectations end with recycling. Pilz believed in an opposite vision of not just reducing harm by discarding an object in the recycling bin instead of the trash but diverting waste entirely. Upcycling also involves a new way
of thinking as the personal care industry accelerates its transition from a linear economy to a circular economy. Currently, many manufacturers take material from the Earth and make products from it that are eventually thrown away (Figure 1). This model assumes an end to the process or even an end to the corporation’s responsibility when the product reaches the consumer and waste is disposed. The market research firm
Fact.MR predicts
the global ‘circular beauty products market’ to expand from $2.4 billion to $4.2 billion by the end of 2032 with a compound annual growth rate of 5.8% between 2022 to 2032.1
three principles: ■ Eliminate waste and pollution ■ Circulate products and materials at their highest value ■ Regenerate nature The circular economy model (Figure 2)
reimagines the lifespan of a product and shifts the way manufacturers could think about their goals. Rather than thinking how to be ‘less bad’ by producing less waste, this process focuses on ways to design out waste and keep generating value. By employing the three principles above, the linear economy model bends to ‘close the
In a circular
economy, the goal is to stop waste from being produced. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation,2
the circular economy is based on
loop’ and keep materials in use at their highest level, contribute positively to or regenerate natural systems, and greatly minimize or eliminate waste. A resource efficiency hierarchy (Figure 3)
ranks the strategies for putting materials to use at the end of their lives,3
most desirable would be to remove or reduce the need for a resource completely. However, in the case of the personal care industry, this would mean not bringing a new product to market.
The next method would be to ‘re-source’, or meet the need through upcycling or converting material into new material. Upcycling is really at
from top to bottom. The
the heart of creating a more sustainably sourced ingredient supply chain for personal care. Then, the strategies for handling waste are ranked. Reuse is better than recycling. Composting is a form of recycling that will return biological nutrients to the soil. Even burning waste will help recover some value by converting it to energy or heat. The worst or least desirable option is to dispose of waste in the environment.
Turning the waste problem into a viable solution When product designers are focused on upcycling, they see possibilities everywhere: seeing trash and thinking treasure. Food waste
Figure 1: The traditional linear economy model of take – make – use – dispose
www.personalcaremagazine.com May 2023 PERSONAL CARE
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