The Power of PACT Collective
Together, let's end packaging waste in the beauty industry
Concern for our personal wellbeing is not the only issue with the beauty industry, nor is it the only reason Wren and Wild Clean Beauty exists. The health of the planet is a major reason companies are going “green” and has a huge influence on how Mandy & Carly curate the store. Each brand is vetted, not only on their product’s ingredients, but their ethos and also the impact their packaging has on the planet. Those itty bitty brushes and tiny tubes? They’re headed for the landfill and our oceans. You might have noticed that recently we brought in a brand of silicone patches. We love the brand but their one and only ingredient was a huge red flag. So, with some research and help from our friends at PACT we are learning of better ways to dispose of the millions of little jars, tubes, caps and pumps used by the beauty industry each year. And you can help!
It’s easy really. Last year Wren & Wild joined the PACT Collective. We recycle the components of beauty packaging that are most likely to end up in the landfill, or worse, the ocean.
PACT collective is a non-profit organization committed to taking on the packaging industry. PACT exists because, “the beauty and wellness industry generates over 120 billion packages each year, and only a fraction actually gets recycled. Most are landfilled, incinerated, or littered, eventually ending up in the ocean.”
The way PACT works is simple: find a bin near you, make sure your containers are clean (dump any unused goop, and rinse and clean the package. Ensure it is truly clean and empty — packages with product left inside get incinerated because they can’t be recycled!) and bring in what your recycling company won’t take such as:
- Plastic bottles + jars smaller than a fist
- Plastic + aluminum squeezable tubes
- Ceramic + porcelain containers
- Caps + closures
- Pumps + dispensers
- Droppers + applicators
- Compacts + palettes
- Lipstick/lip gloss tubes + applicators
- Mascara tubes + wands
- Plastic pencil components for eye/lip liner + brow pencils
- Toothpaste tubes + dental floss containers
- Silicone containers
- Pouches
- Supplement bottles
Can’t find a bin near you? No problem. Until a retailer in your area joins PACT collective you can use PACT’s mail-back program.
As for those super hard to recycle patches I spoke of? Not only will PACT take them but the brand that we are absolutely loving, Wrinkles Schminkles, has their own mail-back program! Here are two options to keep those silicone patches out of the landfill:
- Drop them in our PACT box. The silicone will be sent to waste-to-energy which means it will be burned. This is the least favorable option for PACT but it stays out of the landfill/environment. Here's the PACT hierarchy of recycling:
- Upcycled into another product (e.g. packaging, carpet, pallets for warehouses)
- Downcycled into a lower value item (e.g. asphalt)
- Molecularly recycled (e.g reduced to chemical monomers that can then be used to build something else)
- Waste-to-energy (packaging that cannot be used in any other way is burned. Pact doesn’t consider this recycling but at least it isn’t in the landfill or environment).
- Wrinkles Schminkles offers a free recycling program through TerraCycle. Here's the link: https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/wrinkles-schminkles
Read our recycling guidelines, bring what you can into the store (or find a PACT Collective collection site near you) and we’ll give you 50 Wild Points for helping us invest in the health of the planet.
Stay Green Friends!
XO,
Team Wren and Wild