Makers tout green on shelves - environmentally safe health and beauty aids - Beauty Care Merchandising

Discount Store News, June 17, 1991 by Richard C. Halverson

Makers Tout Green on Shelves

Health and beauty aids marketing promises to become even more competitive as manufacturers claim credit for making their products and packaging more earth friendly.

Manufacturers have reduced over packaging, switched packaging to more readily recyclable materials and reformulated H&BA products to make them less harmful to the atmosphere.

Such changes result "in a lot of smart environmental marketing," said John Ruf, a principal in New England Consulting Group, Westport, Conn. These efforts, he said, are leading to innovations in the way products are delivered.

Nonetheless, H&BA sales in the discount store business aren't yet affected by environmental issues, said Bruce Robinson, H&BA buyer for Boston Distributors, a major wholesaler. Although more and more vendors are touting the environmental features of their products, "We may be in the early stages" of green consciousness on the part of consumers, he said.

While it may take time, manufacturers who are marketing to the green consciousness of consumers and retailers can eventually expect a net gain in shelf space as all H&BA suppliers leap on the issue of reducing excess packaging.

Kmart, for instance, is testing in its newly opened Sayville, N.Y., store Del Labs' new Naturistics line of hair, face and bath products. The products are made from natural essences, like almond and citrus, and packaged in easily recyclable PET plastic bottles. PET plastic is the most widely used plastic, soda bottles are made from this type of plastic.

A prime example of manufacturer innovation is the AirSpray hair spray dispenser from Vidal Sassoon, a Procter & Gamble brand. Instead of packaging AirSpray with butane or propane propellant, which California air pollution authorities blame for contributing to smog, Vidal Sassoon packages it in an unpressurized can. Built into the lid is an air pump, and the customer supplies the propellant by pumping up the can with air, just as a camper pressurizes a Coleman stove or lantern.

The AirSpray also is refillable, and a Vidal Sassoon spokeswoman claims that a can of AirSpray and four refills generate only 35% of the trash that conventional aerosol cans would to dispense the same amount of product. Vidal Sassoon kept the can price the same, ($2.88 at Kmart), but reduced the size to 6.5 ounces from 7 ounces, raising the per ounce price by 7%.

Consumers will pay a nickel premium on a $1 item, or 5% more, for environmental improvements, said John Martin, senior vice president of merchandising for Boston Distributors, but they won't pay $1.39.

Existing and proposed state laws are helping to drive green revisions in formulation and packaging.

In 1992, the California air pollution law limiting the amount of volatile organic compounds in products becomes effective. Eventually, such states as California, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington will enact laws forcing makers to reduce the materials used in packaging, as well as to use materials that are both recycled and recyclable, predicted Ruf from New England Consulting.

In order to comply with the California VOC law, Almay, for example, is reducing the VOC content of its nail polish remover to 85% from 90%.

And to comply with the new restrictions, Cosmosol, White Plains, N.Y., developed alcohol-free New Idea hair spray.

New Idea retains a hydrocarbon propellent, dimethyl oxide, for its aluminum aerosol can, a spokesman said, but substituting water for alcohol in the hair spray itself permits use of a VOC propellant while staying within state limits.

Using both an alcohol base and a hydrocarbon propellent pushes a hair spray aerosol over the VOC limit, Cosmosol contends.

For six months, Wal-Mart recognized New Idea, which it carries at $2.48 for an 8-ounce can, giving it a "green" shelf sticker for having made an environmental improvement.

An environmental concern in the '70s over aerosol propellents led to a fundamental shift in the way deodorants are marketed. But Robinson of Boston Distributors, expects no such dramatic shift in the way other H&BA products are delivered.

Because of concern about the damage that CFC propellent causes to the ozone layer, deodorant manufacturers introduced first roll-ons and then solids. Solids now have captured 50% of the market, while aerosols and roll-ons each suffer a steady erosion of about 1% a year, Robinson said.

What will affect retailers is the environmental trend of reducing excess packaging for H&BA products.

Following Wal-Mart's lead, retailers are pressuring manufacturers to eliminate waste packaging because they want more shelf space, said Don Hootstein, a principle in Group Four Design, Avon, Conn. Group Four specializes in package design consulting.

In the latest example of that pressure, Sears, Roebuck & Co. has just sent a letter to all suppliers, Hootstein said, asking them what they intend to do about reducing excess packaging by 1993 and asking them how they plan to do it.

All the major H&BA vendors are getting involved in source reduction, Hootstein said. Although the effect of any one change is small, the cumulative affect over time "will be widesweeping," he predicted.