Can Skincare Products Drive Environmental Change?

Recently, at one of our physical stores, we were pleasantly surprised when a customer brought in a large suitcase filled with 133 empty Greenvines bottles for recycling! This marks over seven years since we launched our “Empty Bottle Recycling Program” in Taiwan, and by June 2024, we had collected more than 400,000 empty bottles. 

Today, let’s delve into how Greenvines’ product containers contribute to environmental change as they journey back 'home' for recycling!

Key Step 1: Recycling and Precise Sorting

We encourage customers to bring empty bottles back to our stores, where our beauty advisors carefully sort them by material, such as glass or plastic. The recycling plant will handle the cleaning, so customers don’t need to pre-clean the bottles. This process also has the added benefit of helping our beauty advisors gain a deeper understanding of our products, enhancing their service expertise.

Additionally, every recycling visit provides us an opportunity to connect with our customers and understand them better. We even consulted with a circular economy advisor, REnato lab, to ensure the correct recycling methods for different types of containers, which can ease the burden on recycling plants and potentially improve recycling efficiency.

Key Step 2: Figuring out where different types of recyclables should go

Our beauty advisors sort the empty bottles and accessories, and then distributes them to different recycling partners. Their assistance significantly increases the proportion of bottles that are truly recycled and reborn. By working with professional recyclers, the discarded bottles are given a second life through processing and reuse. For example, 50% of the glass bottles used for Greenvines skincare products are made from recycled glass, some of which came from previously collected Greenvines glasses. Similarly, the recycled yarn used for our staff uniforms comes partly from Greenvines’ empty plastic bottles.

Innovative Recycling in Skincare: Greenvines' Glass, Plastic Bottle, and Paper

From the design stage, Greenvines has aimed to minimize the use of different materials to increase the recyclability of empty bottles. Let’s take a look at the journey of various Greenvines containers:

Glass Bottles

Taiwan's glass recycling rate is second only to Sweden and has even surpassed Japan, making it the second highest in the world. In Taiwan, where the glass recycling system is relatively well-established, Greenvines benefits from high-quality recycled glass, a result of everyone's collective efforts to promote recycling.

In 2021, the new generation of Greenvines switched to using 50% recycled glass* for their skincare product bottles, which remain 100% recyclable. We then send the empty glass bottles to the largest glass recycler in Taiwan for circular use, where they can be recycled into new glass materials or transformed into technological building materials like energy-saving bricks, or even artistic items like colorful glassworks and glass cups.

Plastic Bottles

The new generation of Greenvines plastic bottles uses 100% recycled PET plastic, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 69.9%. In collaboration with Da-Ai Technology, we produce eco-friendly bags, textiles, and blankets made from rPET. These products are then transported to disaster areas, ensuring that resources can benefit more people.

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Notes:

• Each year, approximately 4,200 kg of virgin plastic can be reduced, and 12,675.6 kg of carbon emissions can be decreased.

• The old 250ml Greenvines body wash bottle weighed 35g per bottle with a carbon emission of 0.1512 kg CO₂e per empty bottle.

• The new 350ml Greenvines body wash bottle weighs 31g per bottle with a carbon emission of 0.04557 kg CO₂e per empty bottle.

Plastic Pump Heads (PP, PE, Metal)

The pump heads are separated into plastic and metal fragments and recycled accordingly. These plastic fragments are processed into new materials like notebooks and file folders by Da Ai Technology, embodying the principles of a circular economy.

Paper Boxes

Greenvines has shifted to using 100% recycled paper for packaging, which can be fully recycled again. This minimizes environmental impact and improves logistics efficiency.

Greenvines remains committed to finding the most environmentally friendly options for our ingredients and packaging. We wish to see more to join us in recycling and sustainably using the earth’s precious resources to lessen our environmental footprint.