It was a huge success for the new edition of the Innovation Day organized last week by the Italian Association Polo Tecnologico della Cosmesi in Crema, south of Milan. With nearly 800 people attending the one-day event, Matteo Moretti, President of the Association, and the members of the Polo Tecnologico della Cosmesi team had indeed all the reasons to be satisfied. Participants had made the trip, of course, from all over Italy but also from several other European countries, to focus and talk about "Green" hot issues.
All the conferences were followed with a great deal of interest by the visitors who had registered. Two round tables, jointly organized by a team of consultants gathered around Jean-Yves Bourgeois, JYB Conseils, Gérald Martines, In-Signes, and Daniel Saclier, My ID Consult, were sold out, with a focus on the urgency and the challenges ahead in rethinking the design and packaging of cosmetic products in a sustainable way.
Containers and contents!
Several high-profile personalities had agreed to participate to the debates of the first-round table on packaging issues, among whom: Andrea Spinosa, Senior Director Consumer Packaging R&D at Coty, but also Giuliano Rossi, Packaging Engineer Manager at Kiko, Audrey Thénin, Head of the Creation and Innovation Makeup Packaging Dept at L’Oréal and Olivier Fromont, Development Director at Sephora.
Because stakes in terms of environment are high, as all participants underlined. An issue that concerns packagings of course but also their content.
According Gérald Martines, more than eight billion tonnes of plastics have been produced since 1950 and only 10% were recycled. And it is estimated that to date, more than 150 million tonnes of plastics are scattered in the oceans and an additional eight million tonnes are discarded every year. Finally, one third of the waste would come from the cosmetics sector. There is therefore no time to lose! In such a context, implementing the 3R dynamics (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) seems all the more relevant. For major brands executives, the various solutions considered are all appropriate. Be it by using packagings made from post-consumer recycled products, refillable solutions, biomaterials, etc. And they did not fail to recall the solidarity which exists between them to achieve together the set objectives.
The consequences on contents was the main subject discussed at the second round table, which was led by Luisa Oliva, Phar. Dr. MSc R&D International Marketing Consultant and Formulation Designer, in the presence of Marine Petronio, Sales Manager at Daito Kasei Europe, Luigi Bergamaschi, from L’Erbolario, Olivier Fromont, Development Director at Sephora, Nathalie Loubat-Bouleuc, Head of Cosmetic Division Marketing&Business at Stéarinerie Dubois and Julia Kuhlman and Bitta Nilsson, from Stora Enso.
In her introduction, Luisa Oliva delivered a thorough overview of current trends. According to her, "so called green products are more and more present on the market. They are made with some of the purest and most natural raw materials. But it is a difficult challenge, particularly in terms of innovations, in order to reach a level of quality suiting consumer demand."
Note also the great success met by the interventions of the Stora Enso team who presented both new cellulose-based materials for the creation of packaging such as cardboard tubes, but also for the design of cosmetic products as such.
