Exploring circular economy in the cosmetic industry: Insights from a literature review

Abstract

Cosmetic industry is one important sector in the global economy and is expected to grow in the next years. The need to achieve Sustainable Development (SD) is growing as well, and cosmetic companies are looking for innovative and sustainable solutions aimed at reducing their negative environmental, economic and social impacts. The interest in this field also regards the scientific community which investigates and proposes Circular Economy (CE) as a paradigm which could support companies in the transition towards a sustainable future. In this context, this study aims to analyze, through a bibliometric and systematic literature review, the state of the art of CE in the cosmetic industry by exploring the academic studies from different perspectives, such as the object of CE proposed solutions, the research methods applied, and the 4Rs principles inspiring the CE practices. In addition, the link between circular practices and sustainability is also investigated. The analysis permits to classify the circular practices into four categories: input valorization, packaging solution, output valorization, and governance and management. The main results show that the highest attention of CE practices is focused on the input valorization for the formulation of cosmetic products. In this regard, a link between agri-food and chemical sectors and the cosmetic industry emerges due to the high number of studies focused on the valorization of agri-food waste and by-products. On the other hand, packaging and output valorization options are less investigated among the scientific community. Finally, the category of governance and management highlights the importance of circular strategies not only in the production phase, but also at the organizational level, for example by proposing specific circular business models. Finally, the results highlight the existence of a link between circularity and sustainability concept, specifically focusing on the environmental dimension.