Face Facts this Earth Day 2023

This #EarthWeek & #EarthDay we’re using our SBTRCT products as placards to raise awareness of the ugly side of beauty.

This is an industry that has been created to cleanse and care, and yet, it’s undeniably making our planet a dirty place, continuing to pump out products in plastic packaging (approx 120 million units of it a year).

When we first launched SBTRCT we didn’t set out to create an “activist" brand. We just wanted to help clean things up. Zero-waste without compromising on expert skincare or beautiful design.

But since our launch in 2020, the sustainability agenda has heightened and we have become increasingly frustrated with how the industry has responded.

Confusing and distracting with “Recyclable’ and ‘Clean Beauty’ messaging.

Packaging products in recycled plastic is the easy bit.

However, there’s often a vital message that conveniently goes unmentioned - we do not have the recycling infrastructure to fulfil the ‘circular economy’ promise being sold to them.

For the most part, the ‘circular' & ‘recycled' will end there. An empty promise.

o Only 9% of waste is recycled
o 12% is incinerated
o 79% accumulates in landfill and natural environment
Source: 5 Gyres Institute

And so our solutions must focus on innovations that reduce the amount of plastic (single-use or otherwise) being produced.

Recent research from the 5 Gyres Institute found that 171 trillion pieces of plastic are estimated to be floating in the world's oceans.

The figure will quadruple by 2040 if we don’t change behaviours.

So, here’s the nudge… swap one of your plastic-packaged beauty products for a zero-waste plastic-free alternative and help us prevent millions of pieces of plastic a year from entering our oceans, our bodies, our mountains, our Earth.

Please sign the Earth Day petition for a global plastics treaty – calling on govts to do more, more quickly to reduce plastic.