The increasingly sustainable beauty thanks also to Legambiente

There is no doubt that the period we have lived since last March 2020 has taught us how everything we love to do is inevitably connected with others, it has made us
rediscovering a strong sense of community, closeness, responsibility and has inspired us a great desire to take care of ourselves and each other. But these long months have also allowed us to truly understand the value of freedom and space, where even a single square meter can make the difference to feel better about yourself and with others.

Today, with the optimism and confidence of the restart, the desire to start being together again in the air is growing
open by returning to live our cities, starting with parks and urban green spaces.
The situation of urban green spaces in Italy is worrying. From an interesting preview of the survey Park Litter 2021 created by Legambiente, it emerges that the problem of abandoned waste unfortunately does not spare urban green areas. In fact, 5,668 waste is collected and cataloged in 17 urban parks in 15 provincial capital cities (Bari, Cagliari, Catanzaro, Genoa, Gorizia, Milan, Naples, Perugia, Pescara, Pordenone, Rome, Rovigo, Turin, Trieste, Udine) . We are talking about the presence of about 3 waste for every square meter examined.

This is waste of all shapes and types, largely attributable to “disposable” products (plates, cutlery and plastic cups but also straws, food containers and handkerchiefs) and to “packaging” (plastic and glass bottles , caps and tabs of cans, bags of sweets) which represent respectively 17% and 28% of the total. Cigarette butts, which represent 31% of the collected waste, are the masters, followed by glass bottles and glass fragments (equal to 10.1% of the total), unidentifiable pieces of plastic (8.1% ), paper items – often confetti – (7.7%) and generic paper scraps (7.4%), bottle or jar caps / can tabs (7%). The park where the highest number of cigarettes were monitored is the Pampanini park, in Rovigo, with 529 pieces; followed by Milan, Parco Elio Vittorini, with 182 butts found in 100 m2, Trieste, Parco Ponziana, with 140 butts.
PPE, i.e. Personal Protective Equipment, is not lacking in the appeal of the collected waste: disposable masks were found in 6 parks out of 18, while disposable gloves in 1 park out of 18. The waste dispersed in the parks is for 58.1% of artificial polymers (plastics) for a total of 3,295 wastes, for 17.7% of paper and cardboard (1,006 wastes), for 10.6% of glass / ceramic (598 wastes) and for 9 , 5% metal (538 wastes). The remaining percentage of waste is made up of rubber waste, organic material, treated wood, textiles, bioplastics and mixed materials and WEEE.

Today L’Oréal Paris and Garnier choose once again to renew their commitment to the environment and to launch, in collaboration with Legambiente, the projectSquare Beauty with the aim of cleaning up and protecting parks and urban green areas of our wonderful Italy.
The spaces for socializing and sharing inevitably denied made us return to appreciate their value and rediscover the importance of preserving the environment in which we live every day. Square Beauty is a shared commitment with its consumers: for each product purchased by L’Oréal Paris and Garnier *, from today until 30 September 2021, 5 m2 of greenery will be cleaned by the Legambiente volunteers, with the aim of restoring beauty up to to 1,000,000 m2 of green areas close to each of us. Together we can make a difference, one square meter at a time.
There are 18 regional offices and 1,000 local groups of citizens involved in Legambiente’s activities that for over 40 years have shared the challenge of a cleaner and more aware future. Their example inspired L’Oréal Paris and Garnier: because true beauty lies in the ability to take care of everyone’s good by being an active part of a community. Today each of us is called to be part of the change and adopt responsible behaviors in our daily lives to favor the reduction of the environmental impact of our activities, the reduction of consumption and the conscious and ethical use of natural resources.

«Sustainability for us is a challenge, an opportunity, a passion. We think it’s a commitment
necessary and stimulating for all of us to generate, together with our consumers, our partners in the large distribution and the entire beauty industry, concrete actions for the protection of the planet and the new generations. Sustainability is a journey, not a point of arrival. L’Oréal is the largest beauty company in Italy and in the world: the impact we can have by continuing to reduce our environmental impact is exciting. To do this we need people who have passion and energy for this cause, and we need an approach of extreme transparency towards consumers, to show where we have already made great strides and where we still have to make many more “, declares Simone Rizzo, Brand Director. Garnier Italy.
«L’Oréal Paris is pioneering to offer the best beauty products to our consumers. While transparency, safety and protection are fundamental to our science, it is also crucial for the brand to embrace sustainability. We are committed to improving the environmental impact of all new or refurbished products, aiming for 100% recycled PET for the plastic bottles of the Elvive haircare range and improving the biodegradability of the formulas. At the end of 2020, 100% recycled PET was used for all of our 250 million bottles of Elvive shampoo and conditioner in Europe, saving the equivalent of 7,000 tons of virgin plastic. Furthermore, since February 2021, L’Oréal Paris has eliminated external plastic cellophane from all skincare products with boxes “, declares Guillaume Lesauvage, Brand Director of L’Oréal Paris Italy.

“In recent months we have reached some important milestones, such as approval
of all Garnier products by Cruelty Free International and the launch of a shampoo line
Ultra Dolce solids that allow you to take care of your hair naturally and without any
placing plastic on the market. And I am particularly proud of our new system
transparent labeling that will allow consumers to make even more responsible choices e
informed, for an informed consumption of the products and their correct disposal or reuse “,
conclude Simone Rizzo, Director of the Garnier Italia brand.

“With the pandemic, we have finally rediscovered the importance of green spaces and urban parks near our home, of their essential contribution to our well-being and that of the entire ecosystem. Even the smallest of green lungs is a very precious common good that needs to be protected. Unfortunately, these spaces are often invaded by waste and neglect, as the data from our Park Litter survey show. For this, with the projectSquare Beauty we will roll up our sleeves to make many corners of our cities shine. A concrete gesture to restore beauty to our green spaces and, at the same time, reiterate the urgency to invest more and more in the circular economy – the transformation of waste into new resources – and in the innovation of materials as in the case of packaging in 100 % recycled plastic, one of the directions taken by L’Oréal Paris and Garnier, ”he says Giorgio Zampetti, General Manager of Legambiente.

Thanks to the donation of Square Beauty, Legambiente, together with anyone who wants
unite, it will clean up hundreds of green spaces and urban parks throughout Italy, well 1,000,000 m2, in
weekend of the historic “Clean the World” campaign on 24, 25 and 26 September 2021. L’Oréal Paris and Garnier have decided to support the consumer in his virtuous choices, through the development and offer of products with eco-designed formulas , sustainable packaging thanks to the use of recycled plastic, providing clear indications on how to dispose and recycle: Ultra Dolce by Garnier has made available all the expertise to create its first line of solid shampoo, to take care of hair with zero plastic waste. Formulated with 94% of ingredients of vegetable origin, without preservatives, soap and silicones for formulas that have a minimum biodegradability level of 97%, but which reaches up to 99% for some products. From January 2022, Garnier’s Micellar Water range will have the bottle made with 100% recycled and recyclable plastic. Elvive by L’Oréal Paris has taken an important step forward in terms of sustainability thanks to the shampoo and conditioner bottles made of 100% recycled plastic. Elvive’s commitment to greater sustainability does not stop at packaging as all L’Oréal production plants, including the Italian one in Settimo Torinese, are “carbon neutral”. The Settimo Torinese plant is also certified “waterloop factory”:
this means that the production site consumes water only as a raw material in the
products and not for other uses. In this way, more than 30,000 m3 are reused and therefore saved every year, equal to more than 100 25 m swimming pools.