Zero waste in the bathroom

March 26, 2021

The zero waste lifestyle is becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. Did you know that only 9% of the plastic ever produced is recycled? Did you know that 8 billion tonnes of plastic are washed into the oceans and seas every year by rivers or from coastlines? Scientists predict that by around 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s waters*. Depending on the type of plastic used, shampoo and shower gel bottles take 70–450 years to break down in the environment. Microplastics have also become a problem of this generation – they are now found in fish and other seafood and, through food, also end up in the human body. It is currently hard to say what effect microplastics have on the human body, but studies of their impact on animals have pointed to reproductive, developmental and general systemic disorders and toxicity.**

Plastic bottles in the bathroom

Does your bathroom look like this?

Although neither Latvia nor the other Baltic states are anywhere near the world’s largest plastic polluters, with our everyday choices we support the scale of particular industries. For example, if we as cosmetics makers avoid plastic in product packaging, we don’t create demand for the packaging manufacturer.

Reaching agreements on mitigating climate change and introducing restrictions at the national level is complicated and slow. Purposeful entrepreneurship can be a great tool for taking action today. From day one, our goal has been to create cosmetics that are friendly to nature and people – with clean, plant-derived and processed ingredients, an environmentally friendly production process and easily recyclable packaging. For example, if you choose our shampoo bars instead of a shampoo bottle, the paper packaging is compostable and breaks down in the environment within 6 weeks.

You too – our customers – make a choice with your everyday purchases and determine what will be on offer and what kind of cosmetics industry you want to see.

For more than a year we have been testing your choice of packaging by offering the same product – lip balm – in either environmentally friendly cardboard or plastic packaging. And we clearly see that you no longer want to add to plastic. That is why, from tomorrow, we are saying goodbye to lip balm in plastic packaging. Likewise, from tomorrow we can also offer beard oils without a dropper, with a screw-on, recyclable aluminium cap instead. This option will be especially useful for those who have already bought a Silmachy product and whose previous dropper still works well.