On World Recycling Day, which is commemorated this Wednesday, May 17, Natura celebrates four decades of being a pioneer in the circular economy: in 1983, it became the first Brazilian cosmetics company to adopt refills in its portfolio. At a time when this concept was still unknown, the company, whose business model is essentially based on its network of relationships, already had as its fundamental premise to offer the maximum with the minimum of resources and develop sustainable, fair chains based on models efficient organizations.
Today, nine of the brand’s 13 categories have recharge options: there are more than 220 products among the 1,100 items in the portfolio that already have this option. In 2022 alone, Natura prevented the disposal of approximately 2.5 thousand tons of waste in the environment, an amount equivalent to the volume of waste generated by 4.7 million people in a single day.
“Reducing excesses and offering the maximum, using the minimum of resources, are the guiding principles of research and development at Natura. We were pioneers 40 years ago, when we were the first Brazilian cosmetics company to adopt the refill and, in 1993, we launched a version for our Chronos line, something totally innovative at the time, especially in the category of skin care. Since then, refilling has been an important solution in the constant search to reduce the environmental impact of our products”, says Roseli Mello, Natura’s global leader of Research and Development. “This requires tireless innovation to introduce refills in categories that are not have a tradition in this format, providing consumers with alternatives for a more conscious consumption”, he adds.
In 2020, Natura launched Kaiak Oceano, a fragrance that proposes to take a more conscious look at waste and pollution in the oceans. Currently, all the fragrance containers of the iconic Kaiak line have been designed to reduce the use of plastic by 20%, with caps made from 100% recycled plastic, of which more than 50% is extracted from the coast. In addition, they have 30% recycled glass in the bottle. The objective of the brand is to reuse, in one year, 102 tons of plastic.
Still in the fragrance category, once again in a pioneering manner, Natura began to offer the refill option in the category of prestige, something rare in the market. The packaging of the masculine and feminine versions of the new version of Essential they are 49% lighter and emit 56% less carbon, compared to normal packaging. Its caps are 100% recycled plastic and up to 45% of the glass in the bottle is also recycled.
“In addition to using less material in its composition, the refills are easier to transport, generating fewer pollutants in the atmosphere. Our containers of this type avoid the emission of 7 thousand tons of greenhouse gases, equivalent to the carbon generation of 1.2 thousand trips around the Earth by car”, highlights Fernanda Facchini, Sustainability Manager of Natura & Co Latin America .
“We use post-consumer recycled plastic, which is thrown away by the consumer and no longer ends up in the environment and takes on new life. In addition, it has an average emission of greenhouse gases that is 43% lower than that of virgin plastic,” adds Fernanda.