Beauty lovers are reminded of how much plastic is in their packaging every time they open a new sheet mask or shampoo bottle.

While companies are aware of the global beauty waste issue, many brands have yet to make major strides in advancing their packaging. 

Luckily, one London-based packaging developer named Shellworks has created a sustainable packaging solution for a common beauty tool.

Shellworks has announced a plastic-free pipette dropper, as detailed by Premium Beauty News. The packaging is made from a material called "Vivomer" that mimics all of the materials common in a pipette dropper: plastic, rubber, glass, and ceramic. 

"We engineered Vivomer to be a truly industrial material — it's precise, resilient, and beautiful when molded," Shellworks' materials lead, Dr. Jay Gaston, shared with the news outlet. 

According to the report, Vivomer is naturally free of plastic, petroleum, and other chemicals — such as bisphenol A and "PFAS" chemicals — found in many beauty packaging and ingredients. 

The new material is reportedly made from waste biomass, including plants, and becomes a plastic-like material after fermentation. It is formulated to break down in home compost and in landfills at a similar rate to cellulose.

Beauty is an incredibly high-waste industry, and it's considered both a necessity and a luxury. Between 20% and 40% of beauty products end up as waste, according to Business Waste, and 95% of cosmetics packaging is thrown away. 

Additionally, half of all makeup testers in stores end up in the landfill to avoid cross-contamination. Overall, around 120 billion pieces of beauty packaging are tossed every year.

Part of the reason this design is important to the beauty industry is that many consumers do not separate the different materials from each other, and recycling sorting machines are not equipped to separate packaging that small.

Which eco-friendly initiative would make you most likely to buy products from a clean beauty brand? Using less plastic packaging 🗑️ Using more organic ingredients 🌿 Recycling empty containers 🫙 I don't buy clean beauty products 🚫 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

If we can encourage brands to switch to more plastic-free packaging, we can not only reduce the impact on our landfills, but we can also reduce petroleum-based plastic production, which contributes to the overheating of our planet and, ultimately, extreme weather occurrences. 

According to Premium Beauty News, Shellworks says it can already produce 2.4 million units of its dropper per year to meet the demand of brands, such as People Care. Planet Care. and Sam McKnight.

"Brands no longer have to choose between sustainability and shelf appeal," Amir Afshar, co-founder and CPO of Shellworks, said to the outlet. "This represents a fundamental shift from sustainability as an add-on to sustainability as the foundation of product design."

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.