Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) has signed a deal to help boost its use of recycled raw materials.
The Clinique and La Mer owner is partnering with SK chemicals to develop packaging made from the South Korean company’s materials from advanced recycling.
This process chemically decomposes waste plastic into monomers, the raw materials for plastic.
Under the agreement, SK chemicals will supply its Ecotria CR and Skypet CR materials – grades that include chemically recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste.
The company will also provide ELC with its Ecozen Claro copolyesters, which can be incorporated into a recycling stream.
According to SK chemicals, ELC plans to gradually increase the amount of recycled materials in its products, replacing non-recyclable materials with designs that incorporate recyclable or recycled ones.
ELC is the second major beauty player this week to unveil environmental improvement plans for its packaging materials.
Elemis also revealed it has joined forces with biodegradable materials firm Xampla to develop plastic-free sampling sachets for its beauty products.
The partnership will see Xampla turn Elemis’ product ingredient leftovers into a biodegradable, heat sealable film.
Meanwhile, the ELC project is the latest in a series of 2023 partnerships between SK chemicals and companies manufacturing beauty packaging.
In March, the company signed a business agreement with cosmetics container specialist Yonwoo, a subsidiary of Kolmar Korea, to develop and commercialise packs using recycled materials.
And in June, SK chemicals inked a deal with ODM player Cosmax to build a cooperation model for cosmetics containers made using sustainable plastic materials.