reducing use of virgin plastic

beginning 2022, amika no longer produces bottles with 100% virgin plastic. we've re-worked all of our plastic bottles to use up to 90% post consumer recycled (PCR) plastics. the beauty of PCR plastics, is that it saves up to 65% of the energy it takes to source and produce virgin plastic. this means we're cutting out a whole chunk of the supply chain, which in turn, saves a whole lot of energy in resources (yay!).

when we use PCR plastics, we don't have to mine for fossil fuels (which is commonly used to make plastic). additionally, this means we don't have to refine the fossil fuels to turn them into plastic (which, you guessed it, costs a ton of energy), only to then melt it down again to create a bottle. instead, with PCR plastic, we melt down plastic that's already in the supply chain and use it again!

PCR plastics are great for a plethora of reasons, in addition to saving energy. PCR helps to create a closed loop, or circular economy which is when you continuously reuse the materials in a supply chain over and over again. in theory, this creates a circle, hence circular economy.

why do we use PCR plastic?

despite its stigma, plastic is the lowest impact material, and for us, the best option. here's why: first, we've found that sourcing glass results in a 40x higher impact than PCR plastic.*

the next material we looked at is virgin aluminum, which has a high impact due to its mining + refining process. lastly, we can't source a recycled material with an unstable supply, making it difficult to use recycled aluminum. we know that glass and aluminum have high recyclability rates, but when looking at the entire supply chain as a whole, we couldn't justify switching to higher impact materials.

*calculated using sustainableminds software.

reducing emissions with amika refill pouches

to further amika’s commitment to packaging with purpose, these wash + care refill pouches lower carbon emissions by 98.4%* when compared to traditional, virgin plastic bottles.

*when used for 1 year, compared to our traditional HDPE packaging