Waste Me Not: KraveBeauty is “peeling back the curtain” on hidden industry waste

14 Oct 2022 --- KraveBeauty’s latest campaign, Waste Me Not, is bringing awareness to what the company calls, the hidden waste of the beauty industry that goes beyond packaging. KraveBeauty is also “peeling back the curtain” on how it repurposed unsaleable product waste worth over US$1.5 million in retail value, created in the past year.

“Beauty does have a waste problem, but it’s not just packaging. Over the years of running my own company, I realized that packaging is only one part of the bigger problem,” observes Liah Yoo, founder and CEO at KraveBeauty.

Production mishaps, returns, damages and excess inventory are all additional issues that encompass the beauty industry’s waste problem.

“No one likes to talk about what goes behind the scenes and the hidden waste of this entire industry…that includes all the waste that gets in throughout the entire product development, production, transportation, back end operations and sales,” she continues.

“It’s almost like a dirty secret; if you keep your lips sealed as an industry insider, the waste doesn’t exist.”

KraveBeauty has launched a sustainability-focused campaign to raise awareness of the beauty industry's hidden waste problem.Product development waste
New product developments involve several trials and errors, leading to rejected and discarded products. This waste increases costs for companies in retail value and adds to their environmental footprint.

After beginning the production on a reformulated version of KraveBeauty’s Matcha Hemp Hydrating Cleanser, it had to reject over 1,200 gallons of product bulk that did not meet the company standards.

“We had two options: one, throw it away, or two, do something about it. And that is how the limited-edition Matcha Hemp Body Wash was born,” Yoo says.

Instead of discarding the rejected excess bulk, KraveBeauty reworked the formula, selling the new product at US$8 to recover all the cost of packaging, freight forwarding costs, transportation, pick and pack and fulfillment fee.

“We tried to minimize our footprint from the packaging material perspective. So instead of going for a bottle packaging, we opted for a refillable pouch,” Yoo adds.

Plastic or glass packaging?
KraveBeauty asserts that plastic pouches require less material than rigid containers, which translates to less water and energy used during manufacturing.

In the company’s campaign video, Yoo highlights piles of boxes filled with glass bottle packaging that the company trialed but never implemented.

“This entire pile is hundreds of units of Great Barrier Relief packaging in 100% glass. With this inner bottle silicon insert that we were trying and testing, we were one of [the packaging company’s] first clients, meaning that there were a lot of risks,” she details.

“It’s best to minimize and de-risk by running an actual pilot production. However, that left us with this glorious amount of Great Barrier Relief that we can’t really sell or use.”

Currently, the product comes in a bottle made of 100% PCR PET which is entirely recyclable, a pump and cap made of PP, which is accepted by some curbside recycling programs and a box made of FSC-certified paper and soy-based inks with labels and recyclable glue. The silicone insert, plastic straw and spring are not recyclable and must be thrown away.

Campaign for change
As part of the Waste Me Not campaign, KraveBeauty will offer the Makeup Re-Wined Pilot for sale in an attempt to repurpose the US$1.5 million worth of retail product.In addition to the digital campaign, KraveBeauty will be opening its first-ever offline pop-up experience in New York next month.

“[Makeup Re-Wined] had the biggest discrepancy between what we approved in the lab and what came out in the entire production,” says Yoo.

“We had to run multiple batches of pilot productions until we got the texture exactly right. That also meant that we rejected a lot of batches of pilot production. That’s why we’re opening our warehouse to sell the pilot version at a 50% discounted price.”

The company takes responsibility for the waste that would be generated with discarding the pilot version that was slightly different in textural fluidity as compared to the regular one. Yoo elucidates that the pilot has the same ingredients and efficacy.

In addition to the digital campaign to normalize talking about the issue of beauty production waste while encouraging other brands to do something about it, KraveBeauty will be opening its first-ever offline pop-up experience in New York next month.

It’ll showcase how the company has reimagined its hidden waste while allowing customers to purchase the complete product assortment, discounted items and win giveaways.

KraveBeauty seeks to inspire the industry to operate more on stakeholder capitalism over shareholder capitalism through its #SlowDownSkincare campaign and its venture studio, PressResetVentures.

By Radhika Sikaria

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