24 SUSTAINABILITY
Eco-friendly glitter tackles pollution
Stephen Cotton – Bioglitter, UK Richard Scott – Editor, Personal Care
Launched by cosmetic glitter supplier Ronald Britton, the new Bioglitter brand is the first legally compliant, naturally degradable glitter, to hit the market. It will give new options to formulators of glitter cosmetics, offering an eco-friendly product that will help tackle the problems of microplastic pollution in the environment.
Personal Care magazine spoke to Stephen Cotton, commercial director of Bioglitter, to find out more. Personal Care: Glitter has seen a bad press in recent months related to its toxic impact on the environment. How big an issue is it?
Stephen Cotton: Plastic pollution in general is now a major problem, with a wave of public opinion putting pressure on manufacturers to cut their use of plastic and find alternative products. Research suggests around 12 million tonnes1
of plastic are
entering the world’s oceans every year and there are now almost 8.3 billion tonnes2
of
plastic waste on the planet, much of which is in landfill. It’s a big problem which is high on both the public and political agenda and the spotlight is currently on the glitter industry which has become embroiled in a backlash over plastic pollution. This is largely because traditional glitter is a microplastic and microplastics are public enemy number one, mainly due to concerns on their impact on the ocean environment. In reality, glitter actually only contributes a small amount of microplastic pollution, compared to other sources such as tyre dust and the washout fibres from manmade fabrics. Nevertheless, there is huge pressure on the cosmetics industry and manufacturers to find alternatives to plastic based glitter. Traditional glitter is essentially small synthetic polymer particles which are too small to be filtered out in waste water treatment plants and can end up in oceans and rivers. The microplastics in aquatic environments can absorb toxins from other forms of pollution. These particles could enter the food chain, working their way up
PERSONAL CARE EUROPE
the chain into fish or other aquatic animals and eventually possibly find their way back to humans when fish are consumed. As a result governments are taking
action. The UK government took the step this year of banning microplastics in rinse off cosmetics, and in America plastic microbeads have been banned in exfoliants. For the cosmetics industry and glitter manufacturers the issue is huge and alternatives must be found that are more environmentally friendly, and non-toxic. At Ronald Britton we’ve invested in a large R&D programme to find a solution and Bioglitter is the result.
PC: Could you talk us through the development of Bioglitter? SC: Ronald Britton has been working with some leading and forward thinking brands in the cosmetics industry for many years now and the issue of developing an eco- friendly glitter has been top of the agenda for us for a considerable period. These things take time though; from conception to realisation of the physical product we have today it has taken the best part of eight years. Development and testing to create a glitter which has all the qualities of polyester based glitters, but is naturally degradable, non-toxic to the environment
and compliant with legislative standards has been quite a challenge. Bioglitter as a product, is the culmination of many years of research and development, a product which is the most environmentally friendly glitter to enter the market.
PC: What are the product’s eco credentials? SC: Bioglitter replaces the use of polyester with a special biodegradable film which is unparalleled in its eco credentials and ability to degrade within the natural environment. The film itself has been developed from plant based cellulose, primarily eucalyptus sourced from responsibly managed plantations operating to FSC or PEFC standards. This cellulose will degrade within the environment but to help speed up this process the glitter has cut edges which exposes the cellulose, increasing the accessibility to microbes, thus enhancing degradation. In addition, on a microscopic level, the coated surface of the glitter is not completely sealed to microbial activity. With our goal to remain as natural as possible in the products used we’ve also ensure no genetically modified organisms or materials are used in the process to create the product. The result is the only glitter on the market
that’s based on core material that meets both industrial compostability standards and biodegradability standards that relate more closely to the natural environment. These standards include; the European EN13432, the American ASTM 6400 standard for industrial compostability and OK compost Home. And finally it meets the requirements of being waste water and marine biodegradable to ASTM D6691-09. In short this means that while durable as a glitter product in application, once the glitter reaches its end of life in landfill or water, microbes can act on the cellulose based film and it will degrade like any natural plant based product to be transformed into carbon dioxide, water and biomass. The speed of this degradation depends on local environmental factors. I like to use the analogy of a leaf in a warm
April 2018
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