Green Beauty? Unmasking the Dark Side of the Cosmetic Industry

Green Beauty? Unmasking the Dark Side of the Cosmetic Industry

*event will be held in English

According to Euromonitor, sales of premium beauty products were expected to reach 151 billion US dollars in 2023, compared to 100 billion in 2021. The beauty industry is booming like never before. While awareness of the precarious production conditions in the textile sector seems to be steadily increasing, there are hardly any reports on the working conditions and production processes in the cosmetics and beauty sector. Yet cosmetic products are constant companions in our daily lives, often packaged in plastics. However, plastic frequently ends up in the wrong bin, which means it is not recycled and can take up to 500 years to decompose. It finds its way into forests, rivers, agricultural land, and even into food as microplastics – and ultimately into the human body. According to Zero Waste Europe, 120 billion packaging units are produced annually for the global cosmetics industry.
In this seminar, we want to explore the opportunities that Fairtrade-certified raw materials in cosmetics and personal care products can offer – for example, helping producers to increase their Fairtrade sales and access new markets. Many of the Fairtrade raw materials already available could also be used in beauty products, such as shea butter, honey, or sugar. Working conditions, particularly regarding health protection, are significantly better on Fairtrade-certified plantations than on non-certified ones.