The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) and materials provider Eastman announced a global memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will enable ELC to take strides toward its 2025 sustainable packaging goals.
Through the agreement, ELC and its portfolio of brands will begin incorporating packaging solutions enabled by Eastman's molecular recycling technologies and portfolio of Renew resins with up to 100% certified recycled content.* This is the first sustainability-based agreement between Eastman and a major prestige beauty house.
"Our suppliers play a critical role in helping The Estée Lauder Companies continue to move the needle and think innovatively about sustainability," says Roberto Magana, senior vice president and chief procurement officer for The Estée Lauder Companies. "Eastman's molecular recycling technologies and portfolio of Renew products will help drive the achievement of the company's sustainable packaging goals while maintaining the high-quality aesthetic, safety and performance of our prestige products. We look forward to collaborating with them."
Eastman's portfolio includes a newly introduced line of molecularly recycled polyesters produced via Eastman's Advanced Circular Recycling. These sustainable resins, which include Eastman Cristal Renew and Eastman Tritan Renew, are made using up to 100% International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) certified recycled content* and are reportedly chemically indistinguishable from their legacy counterparts. Eastman says the materials demonstrate the same high-quality and processing ease of virgin polymers with the clarity, luster, color compatibility and durability cosmetics packaging demands.
The MOU will further ELC's focus on its sustainable packaging goals. The company has committed that, by 2025, 75-100% of its packaging will be recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled or recoverable. Additionally, the company says it will increase the amount of post-consumer recycled material in its packaging by up to 50% in the same year.
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*The recycled content is achieved by allocating the recycled waste plastic to Eastman Renew resins using a mass balance process certified by ISCC.