Amorepacific has announced plans to transition to a more sustainable product life cycle. The new measures aim to overhaul the company’s entire value chain – from development and packaging through to retail and recycling.
Amorepacific is expanding the use of eco-friendly Bio PET plastic made from sustainably-farmed plants, such as sugarcane and corn.
According to the company, Bio PET packaging produces 20% less carbon emissions than plastic bottles, and foregoes the use of non-renewable petroleum for renewable plant resources.
The group’s Hanyul, Iope, Innisfree, Mise en Scène and Happy Bath brands are already using this eco-friendly packaging.
The company has also been exploring other sustainable packaging options and has recently started using smaller boxes to minimise overpackaging. In 2018, Amorepacific swapped out plastic cushioning materials with FSC-certified paper. The next year, it replaced plastic tape with paper packing tape and replaced laminated boxes with recycled kraft boxes.
Amorepacific has also been reducing its environmental footprint across its retail spaces. For example, 70% of the Innisfree ‘Gong Byeong Gon Gan’ or ‘Recycled Bottle Store’ in Samcheong-dong, Seoul was built using 230,000 recycled cosmetics bottles. The company’s Aritaum, Innisfree and Etude shops have also been constructed with sustainable materials.
In addition, the company’s Greencycle campaign encourages customers to recycle old cosmetics bottles. The campaign — which was originally launched in the early 2000s — gives customers Amorepacific reward points whenever they return used cosmetics bottles to the shops for recycling.
The bottles are then upcycled to create public art pieces, including Amorepacific’s three-metre-long Laneige bottle water drop-shaped chandelier, which debuted in the Seoul Lantern Festival back in 2016.