Water Waste
“While not the largest user of water, the beauty industry is a growing contributor to water waste,” says Dr. Wittke, noting that we’re so used to water “just coming out of the tap,” and therefore we use it abundantly. “Water is ubiquitous in beauty formulations and typically the first—or one of the first—ingredients in bottled beauty products. Liquid shampoo, for example, usually contains 80 to 90 percent water, which doesn’t make much sense given that you have water in your shower. Plus, water in beauty formulations is the key reason why products have to be packaged in plastic bottles. In the U.S. alone, 552 million plastic shampoo bottles are being sold in the U.S. every year.”