“Our goal is to keep plastic outside the environment,” Xavier Joseph Aptar

On May 19, Xavier Joseph, Vice President of Global Marketing and Innovation at Aptar Beauty + Home, was a featured speaker during the "Circular Economy" session, together with Clemence Schmid, Executive Vice President Commercial Loop Global at TerraCycle, and Ben Patten, Good Club co-founder and CEO.

“We believe in keeping the plastic in the economy but outside the environment,” said Xavier Joseph as an introduction. In order to reach this goal, Aptar is focusing on the creation of more sustainable product development through three main areas: recycled materials, recyclability and reusability.

For instance Aptar Beauty + Home is focused on developing new mono-material solutions, such as Future, their fully recyclable mono-material pump, or on modifying existing ones with more recycled resins. For instance, the group has expanded its resin portfolio, with the new PCR Plus resin specifically designed for the cosmetic industry.

Aptar’s experts are also designing reloading systems such as long-lasting compact cases with reloading capabilities. Indeed, for Xavier Joseph, refillable or reloadable products are “an opportunity to create new business models”.

In Indonesia, Aptar partnered with Siklus a start-up that works at getting rid of disposable sachets that are common in Southeast Asia. Siklus operates mobile refill units from motor scooters: customers order and schedule delivery through the company’s app or WhatsApp. They bring their own bottles or purchase one from Siklus, and the driver dispenses shampoo, detergent and other products from the back of a bike. Aptar conceived the valve that facilitates the dispensing of the products into the customer’s own recipient.

“Sharing market knowledge for emerging trends, leveraging manufacturing, regulatory, R&D, and innovation expertise are essential to achieving a more circular economy. From leading brands to start-ups, our partners lean on us to provide them with recyclable, reusable or refillable models,” shared Xavier Joseph.

As a signatory of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, Aptar committed to incorporate more recycled content into product offerings and have ttheir dispensing solutions for the beauty, personal care, home care, food and beverage markets be 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

To achieve these commitments, the group continue to pursue initiatives to deploy best-in-class innovation practices and scout novel technologies developed by startups, to reach packaging industry’s sustainability and circularity targets.

“The shift towards the circular economy is underway and we will not be able to resist such a powerful phenomenon. We have to move forward and create new business models, but that takes time, money and imagination! Fortunately, we are becoming more and more innovative in these areas and I am convinced that most of what will shape our future has not yet been invented. Our customers have ideas and our mission is to help them make their projects come true. This may involve some form of cooperation between the various market players, for example in order to define new standards,” told Marc Prieur, President of Aptar Beauty + Home to Premium Beauty News.