Making new beauty products from discarded waste in trash cans

What if the cosmetics of tomorrow came straight from our trash cans? The aim is to avoid using new raw materials, all while driving down waste. What’s not to like?

Many cosmetics brands are starting to delve into our garbage cans, especially those of the food industry, to concoct the cleansers, creams, serums, and makeup removers of tomorrow.

The new interest in waste is also linked to the need for beauty industry companies to reduce their environmental footprint, meeting new expectations of consumers.

The My Skin Feels brand was born on the beaches of Brighton, on England’s south coast, and focuses primarily on organic ingredients from the food and drink industries.

For its two flagship products, the brand used mandarin fruit juice waste, stating that eight kilos of waste give rise to one liter of ingredients.

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Rise of upcycled beauty and fragrance products

My Skin Feels also incorporates Italian tomato skins from ketchup waste, packed with antioxidants, as well as oat waste, known for its soothing properties, and waste from olive oil manufacturing, again hailed for its antioxidant properties.

British brand UpCircle Beauty is embracing blueberry juice waste, date pits, chamomile stems, discarded spices, or even olive pips. The brand was founded well before the pandemic, in 2016, and now offers dozens of products.

Meanwhile, in France, the Cultiv brand upcycles waste from organic agriculture, particularly the famous ugly vegetables.

Cultiv develops cosmetics based on beets, spinach, wild chicory, flax or rye.

The perfume industry is also taking a close interest in waste. The family group TechnicoFlor, for example, has developed a whole collection of upcycled fragrances.

White wine lees recovered from the deposits generated in wine barrels during the aging process, as well as woodworking waste, clementine peels, cocoa pods or strawberry waste are all used in the composition of these fragrances.

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