Plastic tax coming into effect this April
Some of you may have noticed some of our bottles are looking a little different. Especially the 125 ml bottles we use for the small (travel size) shampoos, hair conditioners and the base oils. Because of the plastic tax imposed from April on new plastic being produced, many packaging suppliers are now offering exclusively 30% PRC bottles, meaning 30% of the content of the plastic used to make a bottle has come from recycled bottles. We are very much supportive of this, of the idea at least. If it wasn't for the colour of the bottles... The clear bottles have a grey hue to them, making them look somewhat 'unclean'. The natural bottles made from HDPE that we use for the standard size shampoos, conditioners, shower gels and big lotions, don't look particularly nice either.
For now, we have taken the decision to continue using the white natural colour HDPE bottles for our standard size shampoos, conditioners and lotions. The 125 ml size clear bottles have changed already, and we are in the process of migrating the hand washes into the 30%PCR bottles, mainly because our supplier for that did not offer us the option to continue ordering the old bottles.
The tax isn't big, we are talking £2 per 1000 bottles, so it is by no means something that is contributing to the cost of the final product, but I guess we all have to do our teeny little bit for the environment where we can.
We realise that plastic is a sensitive issue. And our plastic bottles are not for products used once and then discarded. The average bottle of shampoo lasts approximately a month with almost daily use and the same for conditioners and lotions. We have had requests for using glass bottles for the shampoos and shower gels, which is unfortunately never going to happen, for safety. And neither will we consider using aluminium bottles due to the health implications of aluminium on the human body.
So, we are stuck with plastic for these products but at least we are using the most widely and easily RECYCLED bottles made from HDPE.
If you wish to comment on your preference for recycled vs new plastic we would appreciate some feedback.
Photo by Ishan @seefromthesky on Unsplash
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