Beauty blow: campaign calls for end to polluting plastic sample sachets

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Nov 26, 2020

What has long been a core and vital marketing and sales tool for the beauty industry is under threat: product sampling in plastic sachets.

Leading politicians, business leaders and campaigners are calling for an end to the use of plastic sample sachets, which they say will "pollute the planet for centuries”, reported Sky News.

In an open letter, 40 experts have called for plastic sample sachets to be included in the UK and EU single-use plastic bans, which currently cover plastic straws, stirrers, and cotton buds.

The signatories are headed by former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, and former government environment advisor Lord Randall of Uxbridge, alongside 20 other parliamentarians. They are backed by members of the European Parliament and experts from University College London and the University of Exeter.

Organised by campaign group A Plastic Planet, the body claimed a “rarely recycled” trillion plastic sachets are expected to be used globally by 2030,

It cited Euromonitor evidence that estimates beauty samples are the third-largest driver for people purchasing full-size products. It noted the cosmetics industry produces 122 billion plastic sachets each year, which are used to package samples of products including shampoo, shower gel, moisturiser, and face wipes.

Plastic Planet founder Sian Sutherland told Sky News: "We've seen governments across the world crow about bans on single-use plastics, but the sample sachet is a huge piece of the pollution puzzle which every one of them is missing.

"The hundreds of billions of sample sachets pumped out by the personal and home care industries each year are used to drive instant sales but will pollute the planet for centuries”.

She added that any ban on single-use plastics should cover sample sachets to "stamp them out once and for all”.