Environmental Impact
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Our skin care routines have a huge impact on the environment.
Our skin care routines have a huge impact on the environment. All those bottles, tubes and containers of product require a ton of energy and new petroleum to manufacture and transport. Most of this packaging isn’t recycled, creating untold amounts of plastic garbage.
Many personal care products contain petroleum, chemicals, preservatives, endocrine disruptors, antimicrobial agents, and plastic microbeads that find their way into waterways, eventually ending up in groundwater, the foods we eat, and into our own bodies.
Polyethylene beads get mistaken for food by zooplankton, which are eaten by increasingly bigger sea life, transporting plastic pollution up the food chain. Birds, turtles, seals, whales and countless sea mammals and fish species mistake plastic for food, which is often a deadly mistake. They become tangled in plastic debris and drown.
Palm oil, another popular ingredient in personal care products, is often farmed on burned or cleared rainforest land. This deforestation reduces biodiversity, particularly affecting already endangered species. Rainforests are also responsible for absorbing much of earth’s air pollution.
The fuel used to manufacture new plastic creates effluent in air and water that can often be linked to health conditions and birth defects in the populations that live nearby.
Using tons of products comes at a cost. The beauty industry creates mountains of plastic garbage that can’t be recycled and will never biodegrade.
For this reason, we use as little plastic as possible in the packaging of our products. Indeed, we use as little packaging overall when it doesn’t directly contribute to the quality of our products, as all of it creates a carbon footprint.
Many personal care products contain petroleum, chemicals, preservatives, endocrine disruptors, antimicrobial agents, and plastic microbeads that find their way into waterways, eventually ending up in groundwater, the foods we eat, and into our own bodies.
Polyethylene beads get mistaken for food by zooplankton, which are eaten by increasingly bigger sea life, transporting plastic pollution up the food chain. Birds, turtles, seals, whales and countless sea mammals and fish species mistake plastic for food, which is often a deadly mistake. They become tangled in plastic debris and drown.
Palm oil, another popular ingredient in personal care products, is often farmed on burned or cleared rainforest land. This deforestation reduces biodiversity, particularly affecting already endangered species. Rainforests are also responsible for absorbing much of earth’s air pollution.
The fuel used to manufacture new plastic creates effluent in air and water that can often be linked to health conditions and birth defects in the populations that live nearby.
Using tons of products comes at a cost. The beauty industry creates mountains of plastic garbage that can’t be recycled and will never biodegrade.
For this reason, we use as little plastic as possible in the packaging of our products. Indeed, we use as little packaging overall when it doesn’t directly contribute to the quality of our products, as all of it creates a carbon footprint.
Obviously, we can’t simply stop using plastic, but we all have the power improve the situation by more conscious consuming. The point is not to strive for perfection, but reduction. Buying what we only really need or really enjoy is a huge step toward reducing our individual impact.
There are other ways Lumanitas Beauty works to lessen the environmental impact we have:
Ugly produce – an insane amount of perfectly good produce is thrown out simply because it doesn’t meet the aesthetic standards of the grocery industry. This is bananas (literally)! We seek out relationships with local retailers to purchase these scratch-and-dent fruits and vegetables so they don’t go to waste and stores can still make a profit from them. When it comes to produce the adage is true: it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
Rescued food – most foods, including many foods that are perishable, are still good long after their “sell by” date. We look for many of our ingredients, both refrigerated and shelf stable, when they are either about to pass or have just passed their printed dates and stores can no longer sell them. Because we make all our facials in small batches, we quickly use the ingredients and flash-freeze in their goodness. This keeps food out of landfills and helps reduce fuel needed to replace perfectly good, expired food.
Packaging – no fancy facades here, and the reason is simple: it’s better for the environment. We use a number 5 recyclable cup and an unlined carboard box. Our packaging peanuts are corn-based and compostable, and our icepack can be reused, or the liquid can be drained, and the bag recycled. We believe in leaving the smallest environmental footprint possible in the manufacture of our facials and are always looking for new and better ways to lessen our impact.
The effects of our daily bathroom habits on the environment are enormous. In the U.S. only about 5 percent of all plastic gets recycled. This has been the downward trend since at least 2018, and there’s no reason to think it will improve. The best action we can take as consumers to keep plastic waste out of landfills, oceans and even animals is to use less of it. Using fewer unnecessary beauty products is better for your skin, your bank account, and the environment.