I’ve recently started using new natural haircare from We are Paradoxx, a fantastic brand (natural, organic, free of toxins & 90% plastic free) with a real passion for the environment and sustainability using aluminium packaging instead of plastic. Available in 40 retailers (having only launched a few months ago) including ASOS, Feel Unique & Harvey Nichols…
I’ve been using and loving the shampoo, conditioner and sea salt spray and the aluminium is a clever alternative to plastic – it can be recycled endlessly (unlike plastic which can only be recycled 6-8 times) and if, as founder Yolanda Cooper says below, aluminium ends up in landfill it doesn’t cause the same environmental damage as plastic. At the moment the only plastic used in We Are Paradoxx packaging is the pump – Yolanda’s top tip is: to recycle any pump, use a nutcracker to remove the metal spring!
Today Yolanda launches a new portal to keep consumers informed about the use of plastics in beauty products – plasticfreebeautyday.org/ – so I took the opportunity to ask her a few questions about the brand and her plans. Enjoy!
This post contains affiliate links & product gifted for review
The Interview
What was your initial vision for We Are Paradoxx in terms of sustainabilty, ingredients, packaging and process?
I wanted to create a clean, natural hair brand that REALLY performs and can compete both aesthetically and from a formulation perspective with the new ‘cool’ brands launching to market, such as The Ouai and IGK. I don’t feel that any brand has really nailed the two elements of the category coming together – this was my mission. Alongside, the high performance formulas I wanted to be as plastic free, without compromising the consumer experience. Currently there is no alternative to plastic pumps – we are feeding back 1% of our turnover into research to be able to produce this and are committed to switching this out, when there finally is an alternative!
What challenges did you face in creating your brand the way you wanted?
I still remember the moment deciding to go plastic-free. It was when I realised we needed to make over 100,000 bottles of packaging in our first year. The global beauty industry produces over 142 billion units of packaging EVERY YEAR! I simply thought “there’s no way I can be responsible for creating 100,000 units of plastic”. I believe there is no such thing as “good plastic” as most of it ends up in the sea or landfill and every piece of plastic ever made still exists! Our packaging is aluminium and stainless steel and even if it ends up in the sea or landfill, it causes no environmental damage. Plus, it can be recycled on an infinite loop, unlike plastic which degrades in quality with each recycling loop. Today we launch plasticfreebeautyday.org to educate consumers around the use of plastic in their beauty products and to hopefully motivate other beauty brands to do the same as we have.
What are some of the small changes we as consumers can make to help tackle waste production? How can we move away from plastics at home and in our day to day?
