The panel featured Elisa Tonda, Chief of the Industry Innovation Branch at UNEP, and Erin Simon, VP of Plastic Waste and Business at WWF Global, who shared a business oriented perspective while highlighting persistent gaps in the sector, including the health impacts of plastics.
On this occasion, Virginie Courtin highlighted a key message: businesses must play a leading role in driving transformation, alongside public authorities.
The industrial challenge
The discussion reinforced an important reality: plastic remains essential to ensure the safety, stability, and quality of cosmetic formulations. At present, no alternative fully meets all requirements at scale.
Transitioning to more sustainable solutions is therefore a complex, systemic challenge, shaped by limited availability of high-quality recycled plastics, gaps in global infrastructure, and the difficulty of implementing alternatives across more than 150 markets.
Despite these constraints, we remain fully committed to reducing its use.
A multi-lever strategy at Clarins
To address these challenges, Clarins has adopted a comprehensive and pragmatic approach, combining several levers:
- Reducing virgin plastic: Early initiatives such as the elimination of microbeads in 2014 and plastic bags in 1999, combined with ongoing redesign efforts, have significantly reduced plastic use.
- Recycled content: Increasing the use of recycled plastics, despite strong limitations in quality and availability.
- Recyclable packaging: Transitioning toward fully recyclable packaging, supported by significant industrial investments.
- Refill solutions: Accelerating refillable models, with strong early adoption and a long-term ambition to scale.
- Innovation: Continuously testing alternative materials, while ensuring safety, performance, and scalability.
- Local initiatives: Collaborating with partners such as Plastic Odyssey to support locally adapted recycling solutions.
A call for collective action
As highlighted during the panel, there is no single solution to plastic pollution — progress depends on combining multiple approaches, from reduction to innovation.
The discussion also emphasized the importance of a Global Plastics Treaty to align regulations and enable companies to scale solutions worldwide — an ambition we share at Clarins, as we continue to move toward a fully circular model and a more sustainable future for beauty.
