When you think of Youth To The People, chances are glass bottles and jars and recyclable packaging immediately come to mind.
“We do our best to be as sustainable as we can be now,” says YTTP co-founder Joe Cloyes. “But we know we’re only at the beginning. We’ll continue to evolve and improve as better technologies become available to increase the possibilities of sustainability. The more brands work on this together, the better we will all be able to do for our Earth.”
In honor of America Recycles Day on November 15, we’re shining a spotlight on the ways Youth To The People celebrates and protects the Earth. Here are some of the ways YTTP keeps sustainability top of mind—and how you can, too.
How to Recycle Your YTTP Products
Wondering how to give your beloved YTTP products a second life? It’s easy. Once you reach the end of the formula, separate the glass item from the plastic, then thoroughly clean both parts with hot soapy water. From there, place each in their respective recycling receptacle. Still have questions? We recommend visiting I Want to Be Recycled, a helpful online resource that shows consumers what can be recycled—and how to do so correctly.
How to Upcycle Your YTTP Products
Upcycling is also always welcome and encouraged. To sterilize glass using the oven, place the glass containers on an oven rack with equal spacing and heat them at 120° for 15 minutes. If you’d rather use a stove, another option to sterilize your bottles and jars is to place them in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. Let the glass cool and dry before transforming it into a holder for a small succulent, candle, or vitamins.
FSC-Certified Kraft Paper
The packaging YTTP products are housed in are provided by Neenah, Inc., the first-ever mill to offer paper that’s certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC certification ensures that the chosen packaging was sourced from forests deemed responsibly managed. According to the FSC, this includes conserving biological diversity, advocating for Indigenous peoples’ rights, enhancing the social and economic wellbeing of local communities and people who work in the forests, ensuring forests’ economic viability, and regular monitoring and assessment of forests and forest management.
“Neenah is fully committed to leveraging our influence to conserve and protect our forests,” says Chris Lambert, account manager at Neenah. “We will only purchase fiber from sources that demonstrate sustainable practices and have third-party forest management certification programs, including Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC.)”
Glass Packaging
As a whole, the beauty industry is a huge offender when it comes to creating and circulating plastic waste; 76.8 billion pieces of plastic packaging can be traced back to the cosmetics industry alone. In fact, it’s projected that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than there are fish. Seeing as it takes 1,000 years for single-use plastics to decompose—thus, polluting our oceans, wildlife, and the air we breathe—selecting glass as the homebase for YTTP’s formulas was a no-brainer. Heinz Glas, a 400-year-old family-owned company and World Packaging Organization’s 2020 Worldstar Winner for continual advancement in sustainable innovation, is the manufacturer responsible for YTTP’s glassware.
PCR Plastic Lids
A major sustainability initiative at YTTP is to transition all plastic packaging—lids and pumps—into a minimum of 70% post-consumer recycled (PCR) material, with 57% of those products getting the treatment by the end of 2022.
“PCR means that we’re using plastic content that has been used before. We recycle and repurpose them for our lids, helping to avoid adding new plastic into the waste stream,” says Amanda Meyer, YTTP’s Packaging Development Project Manager. “We’re actively working on converting all of our lids into PCR material. The Polypeptide-121 Future Cream is the first product to launch with a PCR lid.”
Written by Grace Gavilanes for Youth To The People
