An innovative way to make perfume
Use of recycled glass reduces carbon emissions and provides long-range benefits
In addition to the beauty of the packaging and the fragrances that characterize the brand, there is something new in Natura's perfumes: since the beginning of 2015, the bottles of the Kaiak, Essencial, Humor, and Ekos lines have been produced with recycled glass, in a proportion of around 20%. According to estimates by Melissa Ferraz Barbosa, a researcher in Sustainable Technologies at the company, the reduction in carbon emissions is expected to exceed 350 tons per year, using about 470 tons of recycled glass, equivalent to 1.65 million 290 ml bottles.
Project leader Melissa explains: “The idea originated from Natura's own culture of sustainability and its commitments in the environmental area. Initially, we believed it would be easy to use recycled glass, a common material in other segments, such as beverages, but we soon realized that there would be immense challenges, such as the difficulty in sourcing post-consumer glass with the appropriate characteristics for use in the cosmetics sector, which requires a premium shard: colorless, clean, and free of impurities that could compromise the manufacturing process.”
In general, selective collection in Brazil is still poorly structured. Moreover, there was no record of a similar experience in the country, and Natura would have to pay the price of being a pioneer. Fabien Brones, manager of Sustainable Technologies science at the company, states: “I think there are few companies that can dedicate such long-term effort to such a complex process to enable this type of innovation. In a way, we broke the taboo of recycled glass and created an opportunity for renewal in the market.”
Another major challenge arose in the pre-production phase in 2012. “In the glass area, the tests are extremely complex, conducted on a large scale and in furnaces with high production capacities, reaching 70 tons daily, operating at a temperature of 1,200 degrees, in continuous production,” recalls Melissa. The costs thus become very high, as it is almost unfeasible to conduct experiments on a small scale, and to solve the problem, the partnership with the glass manufacturer SGD Brasil was essential, as Fabien explains: “There was a very deep discussion with this partner, who accepted the challenge we proposed, as did the supplier of the recycled glass, which proves the importance of these strategic partnerships.”
According to Fabien, it is based on the difficulties encountered that one can see the true value of the project: “Here lies the perseverance and motivation of Natura to make this work with its partners feasible, to the point of moving an entire chain, to show that it is viable to give a destination to glass and encourage quality collection. We entered the concept of the circular economy, which implies a change in vision among the various actors involved so that things could happen this way.”
In the future, Fabien believes that Natura will expand the use of glass in new lines of perfume or other products, but everything still depends on a lot of planning: “The use of technologies like this is a commitment of the company, and there is a great potential to be explored. Closing a cycle is also an opportunity to open new doors. The most rewarding thing was to see how a project like this infects people internally, due to its innovative nature. Our permanent goal is to reduce environmental impact, or even seek positive impacts, which is now Natura's new ambition. We are happy to share the results of the project, which are now clearly visible to the market,” he adds.
