Albéa’s initiatives
A SUSTAINABLE
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Albéa is ahead of the sustainability
curve, having worked with the ‘three
Rs’ of reuse, reduce and recycle
for its packaging for more than 15
years. For example, the company
introduced travel pouches made from
cornstarch before such ideas became
popular, and has also implemented ideas
such as putting together Air France’s baby
kits (pictured below) at a disabled people’s
centre in France, rather than sending
cosmetics to China to be packaged, which
would then be delivered back to France.
Recent developments at Albéa include
becoming the first cosmetics packaging
company to sign the New Global Plastic
Commitment from the Ellen McArthur
Foundation, which means it is committed
to 2025 targets of making 100% of its
plastic packaging reusable or recyclable,
setting a recycled content target of 10%
across all plastic packaging, taking action
to eliminate problematic or unnecessary
plastic packaging, and taking action to
move towards reuse models, where
relevant. So far, the company has
developed strategic product roadmaps
for every product category and endmarket
and has also launched the Circular
Beauty initiative to help define new rules
for cosmetic packaging, to ensure the
industry moves from ‘technically reusable
or recyclable’ to ‘effectively reused or
recycled’ packaging.
Albéa has also joined SPICE (the
Sustainable Packaging Initiative
for CosmEtics), an initiative
founded by beauty giant
L’Oréal and environmental
sustainability expert,
Quantis, that brings
together organisations
in the cosmetics
industry to work
towards the common
goal of shaping the future
of sustainable packaging. For
example, it has collaborated with
L’Oréal to develop cosmetics packaging
for items such as tubes, lipsticks and
lotion pumps where plastic is for the
most part replaced with a bio-based
and certified paper-like material.
Gilles Swyngedauw, Albéa’s vice
president of innovation and marketing
explains, “Albéa’s commitment to
sustainability goes back 15 years. The
AIR CALIN
Albéa’s in-house studio, Studio 360, takes inspiration
from the latest fashion and lifestyle trends to create
made-to-measure solutions for customers. The
latest is a business class kit for French airline,
Air Calin, created with cosmetics partner, Melvita.
The pouch is made from rubber PU with two vinyl
strap options of red and grey. The bright coral red
lining holds hand cream, face cream, lip balm, a
dental kit, eyemask, non-slip socks, tissues,
“The challenge today is to develop an
efficient circular economy in the beauty
and personal care sector. We are working
with our ecosystem to rethink the value
chain to include collection, sorting and recycling
at the end of our products’ long and happy lives”
François Luscan, president and CEO, Albéa
a shoe bag, earphone covers
and earplugs.
focus until recently was on eco-designing
lighter packaging, with less plastic and
more post-consumer recycled resins.
Today we are accelerating development
of recyclable and reusable packaging that
contributes to circularity. We want to
contribute to building a circular economy
where plastics never become waste. Let’s
act together to make this happen.”
Albéa is
working to make
100% of its plastic
packaging reusable
or recyclable by
2025
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end- INFLIGHT AMENITIES
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