Five secrets of success: Replacing fossil-based plastics in the LUMENE moisturiser jar

The next step was to apply similar principals to packaging. The first one up was the jar for all 50 ml moisturiser jars in their core product ranges, of which around 1.5 million are sold every year. In 2020, LUMENE reduced the jar’s weight, cutting the amount of materials required to manufacture it by 40 percent. But this wasn’t enough.

“I wanted us to find a more sustainable material that wasn’t made from fossil fuels: our target is for 80% of the plastic material we use to be renewable or recycled by 2025. So I decided to call UPM, which was familiar to me from my childhood as one of their factories is based in my home town. I knew that if we could improve the choice of material for our jar, we could really make a difference to our packaging sustainability objectives,” says Arola.

UPM has its roots in the Finnish paper, pulp and sawmill industry but is refocusing on producing biomaterials and biofuels, using the residues and side streams generated from its pulp and paper-making business. Its wood-based renewable naphtha, a key pre-cursor of plastic, was just what LUMENE needed.

“We were the first to utilise crude tall oil in both jars and labels. Crude tall oil is a residue of the pulp-making process, a raw material to produce renewable naphtha. We were also the first to identify the potential of this wood-based product to transform various industries towards more sustainable materials,” says Anneli Kunnas, a Senior manager, Stakeholder Relations and Marketing, at UPM Biofuels, explaining the company’s contribution.

2. Challenge: Keeping it fresh and clean

Cosmetics packaging needs to keep products fresh for a long time.

“We wanted to think about every single component of our jar, such as which material is it made from, who makes it, and does it stay looking good while the cream is being used. For cosmetics use, there aren’t enough sustainable options because mechanically recycled plastics often aren’t pure enough chemically and can also look grayish,” says Arola.

“Bio-based plastic is purer and cleaner and easier to use,” she adds. 

LUMENE needed a second partner, SABIC a global polymer and chemicals producer, to process UPM’s bio-attributed material into something suitable for its new jar: Certified renewable polypropylene.

The new material had to provide the same ease of processing as fossil-based resins on conventional manufacturing equipment, without any significant molding or processing changes. There was also the end-of-life recyclability to consider: the consumer had to be able to recycle their moisturizer jar in existing circular material streams.

3. Research: Life-cycle assessment, costs and compatibility

“Although the bio-attributed material used more water and land, it came out better overall because it creates fewer emissions and has a smaller carbon footprint, so it has a positive impact,” says Arola.

“We also had to consider how the jar is processed after the cream is finished. Luckily the jar recycles as well as fossil-based plastic to make items such as flower pots or cleaning materials,” she adds. 

Another issue was cost. 

“Because bio-attributed plastic is more expensive than ordinary fossil-based plastic, I needed to make a business case internally for management to support us. They did because if you want to do sustainable business, you need to invest in it,” says Arola. 

For a cosmetics company, changing a key material would usually require a long period of compatibility testing. 

“But because the end product, the plastic, is the same as its fossil-based [counterpart], that was quite a quick process,” adds Arola. 

SABIC used BioVerno renewable naphtha  generated by UPM from pulp production residues as feedstock to produce the certified renewable SABIC PP resin. The resin provides the same processability as comparable virgin-based PP materials for injection molding and film production.

As well as the jar, LUMENE needed its labels to be sustainable. They are printed on UPM’s Raflatac Forest Film, the world’s first film label material made with UPM’s wood-based naphtha. This made them the first company in beauty industry to use this crude tall oil -based bio-attributed plastic in both jar and the label material.

4. Communication: What makes it better? 

Arola says it’s hard to tell consumers about the jar’s credentials.

“Bio-attributed plastic and fossil-based plastic look the same. You don’t see a difference. But that’s a good thing, because it shows that it’s as safe and functional as its fossil-based alternative. Yet the raw material comes from the side stream of the forest industry.”

The jar relies on what’s called a mass-balance approach for introducing the alternative renewable material: SABIC uses a verified amount of bio-attributed feedstock alongside fossil-based material in the manufacturing process to produce the certified renewable plastic packaging. UPM’s Kunnas explains: 

“SABIC utilises our bio-attributed feedstock in their process and the amounts used in the process are certified.  So we know exactly how much bio-attributed feedstock is fed into SABIC’s production, and with the help of the mass balance certification system, the respective amount of bio-attributed product can be allocated to customers.”

Arola adds: 

“The same amount of bio-attributed materials that go into the process [equal] the amount that goes out. It’s checked to ensure it’s always the same.”

The renewable content of the resin is based on a mass balance approach which is third-party verified in line with the industry-acknowledged ISCC PLUS (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification) system The full value chain from forest to the jar and label is ISCC PLUS certified.

5. Future: What’s next?

SABIC hopes this initiative will inspire other companies to overhaul their packaging, while helping UPM and LUMENE to hit their ambitious carbon footprint reduction targets and preserve fossil-based feedstock.

Kunnas at UPM is excited about longevity. 

“The shelf life for this jar can be three years so we were really happy to be part of something more durable than many other packaging products, which get used and then discarded or – in best cases – recycled,” she says.

For LUMENE the next step is to redesign the bio-attributed jar. 

“Our next generation packaging design uses 44% less plastic material, helping to reduce the environmental impact even further,” says Arola. 

All that leaves is one challenge. 

“We use a softer, foam-like plastic inside the lid, which is still made from fossil fuels. So the jar is 97 percent bio-attributed while we look for a green alternative for inside the lid,” she adds.