Bye bye microplastics: Eucerin reaches sustainability milestone

Wiebke: That’s right, the complete changeover was a real mammoth project. As the revisions took over 10 years, we can of course only speak on behalf of the many people who were involved. Ultimately, cross-functional collaboration was the key to success. We brought together the expertise of numerous colleagues from the different Research & Development, Marketing, Supply Chain and Corporate Sustainability teams. As a team, we revised more than 70 formulas or withdrew them from the market if they could not meet our quality standards without the use of microplastics.

Wiebke: No, unfortunately the problem has not yet been solved. Microplastics are still an issue for many other products and industries. Cosmetic products have often been the focus of public discourse. However, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) identifies the main sources of microplastics in the oceans as washing synthetic textiles, abrasion from car tires and “urban dust”, which is defined as abrasion from households or construction sites, paints or varnishes. So there is still a lot to do in various industries...

Christoph: There is also the problem that the term “microplastics” has not yet been uniformly defined, which often leads to misunderstandings. Like the WWF, we are guided by the definition of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which defines microplastics as solid, water-insoluble plastic particles with a size of 5 millimetres and smaller.

Christoph: We are indeed working on many different topics at the same time in order to combine the well-known high level of product efficacy with a reduced impact on the balance of the environment. Our product formulas are an important building block. For some time now, we have been pursuing a product development strategy of drastically reducing the proportion of poorly biodegradable components in our formulas. These include certain soluble synthetic polymers, silicones, mineral oil derivatives and special light filters and stabilizers. All these measures naturally help to make our products even more sustainable in the future.

Wiebke: In addition to our formulas, product packaging is also a key topic for us. We want to significantly reduce the amount of fossil-based virgin plastics we use to package our products. We have been working on this for roughly three years now and have already managed to switch almost all our PET bottles to recycled PET. It is also important to us to increase the recyclability and reusability of our packaging. We have had refill bags in our range for over 25 years – this saves a lot of plastic. But we are thinking even further. At the beginning of 2023, we launched a refill solution for jars for the first time – for our best-selling face cream, the Eucerin Hyaluron-Filler. We are working on more innovative solutions for the future.

_{* According to the definition of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).}

What is microplastics?

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines microplastics as solid, non-water-soluble and non-biodegradable plastic particles that are less than five millimeters in size. Primary microplastics are intentionally produced as tiny particles to be used as product ingredients, for example in scrubs, shampoos, sun creams, cleansing products, make-up or lip care products. In contrast, secondary microplastics are the by-product of large pieces of plastic that break down into smaller pieces through erosion and the action of natural elements.