Our most exciting announcement of 2022 so far…

UpCircle Beauty is now officially a certified Plastic Negative brand! We've partnered with rePurpose Global to remove more ocean-bound plastic than we create as an entire business. 

It’s reported that $30 billion is needed per year to stop plastic leakage into nature. The biggest plastic polluter is multi-layered-plastic or “MLP” for short, a form of packaging used heavily by the beauty industry. To give you an idea of the scale here, the global cosmetics industry annually produces 120 billion units of packaging, much of which is MLP. This type of plastic cannot be recycled and as a result ends up contaminating the ocean and endangering wildlife.

Through our partnership with rePurpose Global we fund an impact project in Goa, India, called Project “Saaf Samudra” which means “clean sea” in Hindi.

With our funding this project removes 1,942 kg of multi-layered-plastic (MLP) from Goa’s coastline, before it enters the Arabian Sea. In other terms, that's nearly 1 million single-use plastic pouches removed from the coastline!

We’ve created a detail step-by-step guide to how Project Saaf Samudra works which you can check out here.

In a nutshell: the plastic recovered through Project Saaf Samudra is all low-value plastic (MLP) that would not have otherwise been removed without our funding; MLP in India has no commercial value as it cannot be recycled. Our partnership with rePurpose Global empowers waste-workers with a fair wage as well as economic subsidiaries, health insurance and access to a dignified and inclusive workplace.

It's so important to remember that plastic pollution is as much of a human problem as it a planet problem. Waste-workers often have no access to healthcare, secure pay or formal workplaces. UpCircle and rePurpose Global are changing that for the fifteen workers at Project Saaf Samudra in Goa.

You can check out the amazing environmental benefits here. 

Here’s what Anna, our Co-founder has to say about this partnership:

“UpCircle was founded on seeing value in things that already exist. That’s why we’ve upcycled hundreds of tonnes of leftover natural ingredients and saved thousands of pieces of packaging. Now we’re turning our attention towards plastic pollution. Through our partnership with rePurpose Global, we are supporting vetted impact programs that will remove more plastic waste from the environment than we create in our packaging and operations.”

And here’s what Svanika Balasubramanian, Co-Founder and CEO of rePurpose Global has to say:

“Now more than ever, we need brands to take responsibility for the global plastic epidemic. We’re proud to announce that UpCircle Beauty has taken a commendable step towards creating change by becoming certified Plastic Negative with rePurpose Global and facilitating the removal of nature-bound plastic.”

Read more about how we achieved Plastic Negativity at www.business.repurpose.global/upcirclebeauty