"Plastic Packaging: How Beauty Brands need to Step Up to help our Planet"  With Hanna Coonagh, Managing Director, Fleet Laboratories 

CEW Mentoring Event: Plastic Packaging with Fleet Laboratories
On Tuesday 20th November, CEW hosted a mentoring breakfast with Fleet Laboratories to enlighten brands on how they can step up to help save the planet. Discussing packaging in the beauty industry was Hanna Coonagh, CEW Board Member and Managing Director at Fleet Laboratories, Matt Rance, Director of Product Development at DDD Limited and Steven Bayliss, Head of Packaging at DDD Limited; all working together to tackle the problematic landscape in packaging.
Hanna opened the event by describing the current landscape of packaging, announcing that Europe alone uses 25 million tons of plastic annually and less than 30% of this gets recycled. 72% of UK consumers admit that they would buy recycled plastic and this should be used as a stimulus to alter brand packaging in an effort to reduce the impact it has on the environment. Hanna then introduced the WRAP Plastic Pact which is an initiative that encourages brands to make their packaging 100% reusable by 2025, to which she positively shared that a lot of the beauty industry are already working to this scheme. 
Matt introduced himself to the room and began to analyse the many possibilities that can be executed in order for a brand to become more sustainable and that there are five areas of consideration: design, size, materials, recyclability and reusability, “even the smallest of changes can create a huge difference”. Matt suggested small changes such as reducing the thickness of packaging, removing cardboard inserts or even upcycling empty packaging into new creations. 
Steve followed on from Matt by discussing what brands can do to lead the way to making sustainable packaging the standard in all industries. Steve noted that in order to initiate the process, brands should select which direction is right for them as this will be different for everyone. Technical constraints, such as liquid products will make it difficult for brands to innovate sustainable packaging – Steve then reiterated Matt’s point that small changes such as design optimisation can make a big difference. 
Questions from the audience highlighted the confusion surrounding different recycling schemes around the UK and Hanna reassured the room that a national directive scheme for recycling will be implemented within the near future. 
CEW thank Fleet Laboratories for outlining the possibilities that are available to reduce the impact of packaging on the planet. 
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