L’Oréal Group forges partnership with Plastic Credit Exchange to offset plastic footprint

PHILIPPINES – Cosmetic firm L’Oréal Group has partnered with Philippines-based Plastic Credit Exchange (PCX) to offset its entire annual plastic footprint in the Philippines, beginning this year.

The French firm will recover, sort and recycle plastic equivalent to its own footprint in the Southeast nation.

This initiative is part of the L’Oréal for the Future program, the company’s sustainability strategy for 2030, and will work in accordance with the Philippines’ Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act.

Yannick Raynaud, country managing director at L’Oréal Group, Philippines said: “L’Oréal is committed to promoting a circular economy. Our focus is to create products that reflect this aspiration, from the design to the post-use of our products.

“To amplify this vision, the group has committed to ensuring that 100 percent of the plastics used in L’Oréal’s product packaging will come from recycled or biobased sources by 2030.

“As we work hard to achieve this goal, we share our full support and commitment to the implementation of the Extended Producer Responsibility Act in the Philippines as an effective way to reduce our impact.”

L’Oréal will be one of five companies working with PCX that has pledged to recycle 100 percent of its yearly plastic scrap volume in the Philippines, PCX adds.

“As the world’s first fully integrated plastic offset program, we are inspired by the strides that the Philippine government and the participating companies are taking together,” adds PCX Founder Nanette Medved-Po.

“Tackling plastic waste is an important issue, and we’re pleased that L’Oréal has gone above and beyond requirements to address the plastic pollution challenge in the Philippines with urgency.”

As part of its L’Oréal for the Future program, the company says it has evaluated all products using multicriteria lifecycle analysis to reduce the impact on the environment since 2017.

In 2022, 78 percent of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used by the company worldwide was made from recycled plastic, and by 2030 L’Oréal aims to reduce the amount of packaging used in its products by 20 percent compared to 2019.

L’Oréal says it was the first beauty company to roll out the Green Parcel Program in the Philippines, an initiative to reduce plastic use in the fulfillment process.

This partnership is timely as the World Bank estimates that about 2.7m tonnes of plastic waste are generated every year in the Philippines, of which 20% end up in the ocean, contributing to one of the biggest threats to marine biodiversity globally.

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