LanzaTech, Total and L’Oréal have debuted a cosmetic plastic bottle made from captured and recycled carbon emissions.
Previously: Envisioning Climate-positive Beauty
Together, the companies have taken a proactive approach to develop a sustainable circular economy for plastics. Each company has a specific role in bringing the packaging to life.
LanzaTech, a carbon recycling company, is capturing industrial carbon emissions and converting them into ethanol using a biological process.
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Total—an energy company that produces markets fuels, natural gas and electricity—then converts the ethanol into ethylene before polymerizing it into polyethylene that has the same technical characteristics as its fossil counterpart.
In turn, L’Oréal uses the polyethylene to produce packaging with the same quality and properties as conventional polyethylene, per the companies.
LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren said: “This partnership is based on a shared goal of creating a cleaner planet for everyone. We are grateful to both L’Oréal and Total for their commitment to reducing the carbon intensity of their activities. Together, we can reduce the carbon footprint of packaging by converting carbon emissions into useful products, making single-use carbon a thing of the past.”
Senior vice president of polymers for Total, Valérie Goff, said: "This partnership is an excellent example of collaboration between industrial firms in developing the plastics of the future produced from recycled carbon and meets a strong demand from our customers. The development of this new pathway of valuing industrial carbon emissions also contributes to the group's commitment to get to net zero in Europe by 2050”.
Jacques Playe, L’Oréal's packaging and development director, said: “L’Oréal is constantly improving the environmental footprint of its packaging. With this innovation converting carbon emissions into polyethylene, we aim to develop new sustainable packaging solution. We have the ambition to use this sustainable material in our bottle of shampoo and conditioner by 2024 and we hope other companies will join us in using this breakthrough innovation.”
