KOSÉ

Activities to Improve Containers and Packaging

The container and packaging of a cosmetic product serve an important role in preserving its contents and making it easy to use. They also provide various information about the product including the product philosophy. However, cosmetic products are still consumer products, and once they have served their purpose, their containers and packaging become waste that need to be disposed of. KOSÉ is in continuous development of containers and packaging that consider environmental impacts at disposal.

Reducing the Use of Resin in Containers & Packages

We have significantly reduced the amount of plastic packaging in our best-selling SEKKISEI Sun Protect Essence Gel, by switching to film packaging in 2014 from individual plastic boxes. This packaging is used for many of our other products, including MAKE KEEP MIST EX.
We introduced paper packaging as part of a complete rebranding of the SEKKISEI line to further reduce the amount of plastic used (see graph).
We are also actively adopting refills and replacements to reduce environmental impacts.
For example, the amount of plastic used in the refill of SEKKISEI Clear Wellness Natural Drip is approximately 80% less than the main container. In addition, by reducing the frequency of disposal of used containers, CO₂ emissions associated with plastic disposal can be reduced.

Easy to refill

Easy-to-disassemble containers made of different materials

Utilization of bioplastics

SEKKISEI Clear Wellness Overnight Cream

By using bioplastics as part of the containers of our products, we are contributing to the reduction of the amount of petroleum-derived raw materials used and the reduction of CO₂ emissions throughout the product life cycle.
Thus we are promoting global efforts to solve global warming issue and realize a recycling-oriented society through the use of biomass.
SEKKISEI Clear Wellness Overnight Cream, for example, uses biomass PP^*1 for part of the container (inner container) through a mass balance approach^*2.
The PP uses biomass-derived raw materials produced by NESTE^*3, a company engaged in renewable energy business.

*1 Biomass PP
Abbreviation for polypropylene that uses renewable organic resources such as vegetable oil as raw material.

*2 Mass Balance Approach
“A method in which raw materials with certain characteristics (e.g., biomass-derived raw materials) are mixed with other raw materials (e.g., petroleum-derived raw materials) in the material-to-product processing and distribution processes, and the characteristics are assigned to a portion of the product in proportion to the input amount of raw materials with those characteristics."
(“Roadmap for the introduction of bioplastics” by the Ministry of the Environment).
For example, if 10% of biomass-derived material is used as the raw material, 10% of the product is considered to be 100% bioplastics product.

*3 NESTE
Neste Corporation is a leading Finnish energy company with strengths in renewable energy businesses including biomass business. The company has been selected as one of the 100 most sustainable companies in the world (Corporate Knights Global 100 Index) for eighteen consecutive years (as of 2024).

Use of Green Nano (Resin Additive)

Packaging (laminated bags) for SEKKISEI CLEAR WELLNESS Pure Conc SS Mask and SEKKISEI CLEAR WELLNESS 1 Day Trial Free SS, and sample packages for Pure Conc SS and CLEAR WELLNESS Refining Milk use Green Nano (a resin additive), reduces CO² when the plastic is incinerated as waste.
Green Nano technology reduced the CO² emissions generated during plastic incineration by approximately 60%.

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  SEKKISEI CLEAR WELLNESS Pure Conc SS Mask

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  SEKKISEI CLEAR WELLNESS
  1 Day Trial Free SS

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  Sample packages for Pure Conc SS and CLEAR WELLNESS

Use of Recycled Materials

(1) KOSÉ also manufactures cosmetic containers at our group companies. We have developed our own devices to reuse plastic leftovers from the molding process, and proactively reuse that plastic to produce caps and sample containers.
For product caps, from June 2022 we increased the percentage of recycled plastic to 50%.
Such efforts have reduced our use of petroleum-derived plastics and reduced our CO² emissions.

Products with Caps Made of at Least 50% Recycled Plastic

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  INFINITY
  Unlimited Key

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  SEKKISEI MIYABI
  CYCLATOR B

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  SEKKISEI CLEAR WELLNESS
  Face Oil Treatment

(2) KOSÉ has developed a compact case in which 94% of the plastic part is made from recycled materials.
The design combines prismatic colors that change depending on the angle of the holding hand and a serene gray to express the world of "SO PRISMATIC," the theme of our fall collection.
The delicate gray color of the body that matches the nuanced color of the top plate is also reproduced with recycled plastic.

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  The Compact Case I “SO PRISMATIC”

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  The Compact Case II “SO PRISMATIC”

(3) Use of chemically recycled PET plastic for product bottles
Some product bottles in our Prédia and SEKKISEI skincare lines use chemically recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate). Since December 2022, we have been progressively manufacturing product bottles with this recycled PET.
Chemically recycled PET not only reduces resource use; it also reduces CO² emissions in the manufacturing process compared with the PET commonly used for cosmetics containers and therefore represents an important initiative in consideration of the global environment.

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  Prédia
  OIL DROP

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  Prédia
  VITAL SPIRITS ADVANCED

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  Prédia
  WHITE V

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  Prédia
  SPA et MER
  G-SERUM

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  SEKKISEI CLEAR WELLNESS
  Gentle Wash

(4) Use of mechanically recycled PP for product caps
Mechanically recycled PP (polypropylene) is made from used PP plastics that have been sorted, crushed and washed to sufficiently remove surface dirt and foreign matter, then exposed to high temperatures to remove purities.

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  Coen Rich The PREMIUM
  Wrinkle White Medicated Hand Cream

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  Coen Rich The PREMIUM
  CICA Repair Medicated Hand Cream

Products using recycled PET

(5) KOSÉ also manufactures cosmetic containers at its group companies. The company has developed its own equipment to re-materialize leftover materials generated during plastic molding and actively reuses them as materials for caps and sample containers. In addition, we are promoting the use of recycled materials for cosmetics containers and have adopted plastic boxes with the “PET Bottle Recycling Recommendation Mark” for some of our products.

KOSE COSMEPORT’s Environmentally Friendly Products (JP)

(6) Successfully developed a "metal-less pump" in which the metal spring in the pump mechanism is made of plastic
Pump dispensers, which are widely used in cosmetics containers, are mostly made of plastic, but metal springs are used in the mechanism that plays an important role of sucking out the contents, for durability reasons. No plastic parts have been used for the mechanism because it is very difficult to achieve the equivalent performance by plastic parts.
The "metal-less pump" developed by KOSÉ, Albion, and Yoshino Kogyosho has achieved the target quality by examining materials and designing a shape that exhibits strength and performance equivalent to that of a metal spring as well as repeatedly testing the strength and durability to suck up the contents. As the first step toward mono-materialization to reduce the use of plastics that are difficult to recycle, we will use this product which has no metal parts, as a foothold to unify the materials used in packaging to reduce the types of materials used. This will facilitate sorting and collection after disposal, thereby promoting plastic recycling.

Cardboard Product Boxes

The cardboard boxes used for the SEKKISEI CLEAR WELLNESS product line use cardboard, which is said to have a recycling rate of more than 90% in Japan.
The boxes are constructed so they cannot be easily opened during transportation or display, allowing us to reduce plastic use by eliminating the outer layer of tear-tape film packaging.

Use of Recycled Paper and Certified Paper

Using certified paper

We are actively working to increase the usage rate of recycled paper in all items including single boxes of products, instructions, brochures, and cardboard boxes. For paper packages that do not contain recycled paper, paper derived from wood harvested from certified forests (“certified paper”) is used.

Proactive use of paper made from sugar cane residue

Bagasse as a raw material to create boxes

Bagasse^* as a raw material to create boxes

* Paper made from sugarcane residue

Unglued Package Box

No glue is used for the package box of “JILL STUART Lip Balm” which is inspired by a mug.
Thus it is easier to disassemble and recycle.

Reduction of Package Inserts

The printing instructions are on the inside of the box and the QR code is on the side.

We are making efforts to increase the number of products that do not have a paper instruction manual attached by directly printing an instruction manual, such as how to use the cosmetics, on a part of the product box (outer box). Currently, many products have adopted this method, and for some products, the instructions are also printed on the inside of the box.
We will also digitize our products by issuing QR codes to reduce the use of paper as much as possible.

For “SEKKISEI CLEAR WELLNESS”, we have adopted biomass ink, which is easily biodegradable and has a low environmental impact, for printing on the product.
The notation on each box is in a size and typeface that is easy for anyone to read, using a universal font that we have established.