Refillable Beauty Brand Maya Wants To Combat Plastic Waste In the Beauty Industry

You can find microplastics and plastic waste in almost every environment on Earth, whether it's oceans and state parks or your neighborhood sidewalks and bathroom countertops. 

While every industry has work to do in cutting down on packaging waste, the beauty category is specifically detrimental in its environmental impact. According to The British Beauty Council, only 14% of packaging makes it to a recycling plant, only 9% is recycled, and the remaining goes to landfill. Most of this is single-use plastic packaging which can take up to 450 years to break down in said landfill.

Maya is a new beauty packaging range designed to combat this issue. Developed by Morrama in partnership with Shanghai-based packaging manufacturer PPK it offers an entirely plastic-free, innovative system. The packaging comes with refills made from a renewable, paper-like material composed of bamboo and bagasse pulp that can be recycled as paper waste at the end of life and gets manufactured using renewable energy. 

The range of products includes lipstick, makeup palette, pumps, and cream pots. Each of the items not only emphasizes refillable packaging but also customization. The lipsticks, for example, are designed to be removed and stowed in individual board-based packaging like crayons, leaning into the insight that consumers rarely ever finish a lipstick product before it expires. You can then load the shade you want for the day into the case. 

"Refillables are not necessarily a new thing in cosmetics, but the refills are made of mixed materials and can't be recycled. Our design approach with Maya has been to strip the refills back to the absolutely essential, cutting weight and maximizing the use of renewable materials," states Jo Barnard, founder and creative director of Morrama. "The primary packaging design has been driven by user experience. It's very easy to add material to packaging to make it refillable, so we've been conscious of designing to be resource efficient. We are excited to allow companies to switch their products to refillables without compromising their brand experience."

Morrama and PPK aim to release a fully recycled aluminum range in 2024, furthering plastic alternatives in the beauty industry.