Product Ecodesign: an Application of Bio-Based Materials in the Personal Care Packaging Industry

The increasing amount of plastic materials produced and their persistence in the natural environment after the use stage makes them highly critical from the environmental viewpoint and human health and much efforts are being made to find valid alternatives worldwide. This is particularly true for the packaging industry where the use of plastics is more intense and products often have a very short useful life. Ecodesign is a recognized approach capable of proposing effective solutions to reduce the impact of plastic materials, including their replacement with alternative ones. In this view, bioplastics have been recognized as a new generation of materials characterized by a potential lower environmental burden, along their life cycle, including the end-of-life phase. The same cannot yet be said for their technological and production performance, both at an industrial level and the use phase, especially for durable products. This article refers to the personal care industry and aims at exploring, in the Circular Economy framework, the Ecodesign of a personal care plastic dispenser. In this specific sector, the use of bio-based materials is still very limited and in an early stage, differently, from other industries (e.g. agri-food) where, instead, the applications are much more widespread. In particular, a material substitution solution drew on bio-based materials has been adopted in respect of conventional polypropylene and polyethylene. The technological performances of such bio-based materials have been evaluated through laboratory, production and use tests; the results obtained highlight that they are reaching levels comparable to conventional plastics. The regulatory, environmental and economic implications of their potential use at an industrial level are also discussed.