Planet
Between 1950 and 2015, researchers found that global production of plastics, including resins and fibres, has increased from 2,000 Kg to 380,000 Kg, with the cumulative production totalling 7,800 000 Kg — Enough to wrap the entire planet in a layer of plastic wrap (Gross, 2017). Over the decades, our plan has been a topic of concern.
When analysing the circular economy and the objectivity of its goals, products are in circulation through processes involving maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, and recycling. The circular economy addresses global challenges such as economics, waste and pollution. Although it is becoming increasingly crucial for the economic future and competitiveness enterprises to redesign existing products and create new products, the CE plays a vital role in the industrial economy for sustainability development (Rocca et al., 2022).
Generally, the cosmetic industry has a firm reliance on fresh water for the production and life cycle of products, and a way to bring sustainable innovation in the industry would be by companies introducing an assessment of reduced Water footprint in their systems (Chapagain, 2017) to help understand whether or not production is sustainable. The United Nations has set 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the 2030 Agenda to rearrange areas that need joint resolutions. In the cosmetic industry, SDG 12 is essential for responsible consumption and production because the global cosmetics market lies in near third place in terms of the fastest growth. However, sustainable development allows the industry to analyse the approach of a green vision, allows the consumer to evolve and helps increase the diversity of products, functionality, product turnover and innovation(Rocca et al., 2022).
Although sustainability can be perceived in different aspects (e.g., consumers, supply chain, materials, and product life cycle) when it comes to cosmetics, it could also be valuable to evaluate change and adaptation in different countries with different cultures and economic development. Researchers debate that implementing sustainability in business practices and processes (e.g., by reducing waste and increasing operational efficiencies) can lead in the long term to several benefits, such as increased market share and reduced operating costs (Nidumolu et al.,2009).
References :
Chapagain, A.K. (2017) Water footprint: State of the art: What, why, and how?, Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780124095489101642 (Accessed: 07 October 2023).
Gross, M. (2017) Our planet wrapped in plastic, Current Biology. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982217310163 (Accessed: 07 October 2023).
Nidumolu, R., Prahalad, C.K. and Rangaswami, M.R. (no date) Why sustainability is now the key driver of Innovation. Available at: https://billsynnotandassociates.com.au/images/stories/documents/sustainability_the_key_driver_of_innovation.pdf (Accessed: 07 October 2023).
Roca, R. et al. (2022) Sustainability paradigm in the cosmetics industry: State of the art, Cleaner Waste Systems. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772912522000574?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=810ce4a0586f4886#section-cited-by (Accessed: 07 October 2023).