Upcycling is the transformative act of taking what is considered ‘waste/byproduct’ and making it into something valuable and useful. There has been boom in the number of ‘upcycled’ products over the years1,with upcycled beauty products claiming many sustainably benefits.
The primary advantage of upcycling is to reduce environmental impact from further harvesting virgin materials as well as GHG emissions from waste.
Today, many new cosmetic raw materials proudly bear the upcycled label, sourced from the byproducts of various industries, particularly the food industry.
Historically, upcycling would have just been called a form of vertical integration – a practice that eventually fell out of favour when discarding waste became cheaper and easier, compounded by strict quality specifications. Upcycling was once synonymous with lower quality, however, with smart systems and product design, high quality raw materials can be extracted from by products.
Companies like Laboratories Expanscience have producing high quality (pharma-grade) active materials since their inception. Of course, they never called it upcycling, until 2017. Expanscience, founded in the 1950s initially tapped into byproducts from the avocado oil industry, to create their first raw material. Their second product emerged from the waste of their first, driven by a desire to reduce waste. Léo Liénard of Expanscience admits that prior to the popularity of sustainable concepts, upcycling was never a featured part of their marketing, as it could be seen as a money saving measure.
Many people still harbor the belief that upcycled materials should be cheaper, given that they originate from inexpensive or waste products. However, consumers fail to consider the significant investment required to add value to upcycled products. Evolved By Nature, a life sciences company based in Boston, USA, enhances value to their upcycled silk cocoons through their proprietary biotech process, essentially unlocking valuable materials previously unknown to the industry2. Combining traditional materials with new technology is an excellent way to carve more paths forward. However, such new processing and validation methods incur costs, making upcycled ingredients often more expensive, especially if they were not part of the original plan. Expanscience addresses this by integrating upcycling processes into their feedstock considerations from the outset3.
Ensuring a consistent and sustainable supply is another challenge. Companies purchasing byproducts must meticulously manage their supply chains. Evolved By Nature, who upcycles unwanted silk cocoons, exemplifies this by rigorously verifying multiple suppliers and building robust stockpiles.
Ultimately, the value of a product is determined by consumer perception. Upcycling companies must ensure that their products meet market needs and resonate with customers. This requires extensive research and development to validate the benefits and establish the market relevance of upcycled products. Raquel Mirabent from Evolved By Nature emphasizes that the added value of their upcycled silk proteins is also a reflection of the sheer amount of work they’ve invested into creating unique molecules that are relevant for todays market.
Upcycling, therefore, is not merely a process of reusing waste but a sophisticated practice that aligns innovation with sustainability, adding significant value to materials once deemed worthless.
As a beauty brand owner, choosing to use upcycled ingredients can significantly reduce your environmental impact, especially if they make up a significant portion of your formulation.
We will probably see the prices of upcycled raw materials match that of their non-upcycled counterparts, as Ingredient manufactures start to optimise their processes to consider by products as resources rather than waste.
1Yu,S.; Lee, J. The Effects of Consumers’ Perceived Values on Intention to Purchase Upcycled Products. Sustainability 2019, 11,1034. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041034
2https://biotech.evolvedbynature.com/
3https://www.expanscience.com/en
