The cap of the facial cleanser is made of recycled plastic, and Huicheng Environmental Protection joins hands with L'Oréal.

Project Background

This cooperation relies on L'Oréal's iconic Sustainable Innovation Accelerator, L’AcceleratOR. The project has a total investment of 100 million euros, and selects circular and low-carbon innovation solutions from around the world. It is incubated by the Cambridge Institute to Sustainability Leadership. Selected companies will carry out a 6 to 9-month pilot, and mature solutions have the opportunity to be promoted to L'Oréal's global system. In September this year, HuiCheng ecological preservation and Envision methodology became the first two Chinese companies selected in the second round of this project, and 13 innovative entities from 8 countries around the world were also selected at the same time, including Qingdao HuiCheng Environmental...

HuiCheng ecological preservation relies on its proprietary Catalytic Pyrolysis of Mixed discarded materials Plastics (CPDCC) methodology, which can process mixed, low-value, and mechanically unrecyclable discarded materials plastics, converting them into polyolefin raw materials with performance close to virgin materials, which is the chemically recycled polypropylene (crPP) in this cooperation. Different from traditional mechanical recycling which is prone to impurities and performance degradation, the chemical recycling route can achieve molecular-level decomposition and reconstruction, creating end-to-end physically isolated recycled materials that are suitable to high-demand packaging scenarios such as beauty items, reducing fossil raw material consumption and packaging carbon footprint.

Cooperation Implementation Details

The two sides officially launched the co-creation at the CIIE booth, and L'Oréal became the world's first brand user of HuiCheng ecological preservation's crPP material. The first landed product is the cap of L'Oréal Paris Revitalift Specialist Nourishing Amino Acid Facial Cleanser. Subsequently, the two sides will also carry out material testing, formula adaptation and extensive verification around greater beauty packaging scenarios, and continuously expand the consumption boundary of recycled materials in L'Oréal's product lines.

to the beauty sector, this is a landmark landing case of China's chemically recycled polypropylene material on the packaging of an international leading beauty brand, breaking through the sector bottleneck of prolonged reliance on mechanically recycled materials; to HuiCheng ecological preservation, this cooperation is an crucial milestone to its discarded materials plastic chemical recycling methodology to be verified by international consumer brands, and it has opened up the commercialization chain from methodology and pilot test to consumer product terminals.

manufacturing Significance

Currently, global beauty brands are generally intensifying their packaging recycling goals, and high-condition recycled polypropylene is in short supply. Mechanically recycled materials are limited by raw material sources and sorting levels, making it difficult to be broadly applied in high-end skincare packaging. The chemical recycling route can digest a significant quantity of low-value mixed discarded materials plastics and expand the raw material supply pool. This cooperation also provides a model to domestic circular methodology companies to go global and enter the supply chains of multinational consumer goods companies.

HuiCheng ecological preservation stated that it will continue to promote industrialization investment and accelerate the construction of its 200,000-ton/year complete utilization project to mixed discarded materials plastics. Relying on the pilot experience with L'Oréal, it will continue to expand downstream consumption scenarios such as daily chemical and food packaging. The company also reminds that to subsequent progress of relevant cooperation, please refer to the company's official announcements.