Our Blog

Fantastic news, we have been working with The Retail Institute, one of the UK’s key academic research centres, that leads the future in retail, to talk about green washing.

Our director, Stephen Cotton said: “Since the bad press around glitter and its part in causing microplastic pollution we’ve seen an increasing number of brands and manufacturers coming out with ‘green’ glitters.  The truth is though, that there is a lot of confusion amongst both consumers and buyers over what is green and what isn’t, the big losers being the well-meaning consumer and of course our beloved natural environment.”

Stephen has worked with the Retail Institute to develop a thought leadership and advice piece on glitter for their Retail Review, read by some of the key decision makers in the retail world.

The article talks about the different “green” technologies out there, and what the public and buyers should be looking for when it comes to sourcing an eco-friendly glitter.

In the piece Stephen talks about consumers and brands being misled, because of glitter makers using products that aren’t considered plastic, or referencing technologies such as compostability.

Stephen said: “Just because a glitter is made from something that is perceived not to be a traditional plastic product, doesn’t make it eco-friendly.  Whatever glitter you buy, whether it’s genuine Bioglitter™ or any other kind, they are all made of polymers.  These polymers can be materials like synthetic plastic (polyester), bioplastic or modified natural polymers like PLA, cellulose acetate, pullulan and regenerated cellulose etc.

“When it comes to glitter, whatever the polymer, whether it’s called a bioplastic, synthetic plastic, or modified natural polymer, if it doesn’t biodegrade in the natural environment equivalent to fresh water biodegradability standards then it’s a microplastic, as recently defined by ECHA , the European Chemicals Authority.  The only way to tell if any of these polymers biodegrade in fresh water is by testing.”

Stephen advises that the public need to look for glitter that demonstrates evidence of good freshwater biodegradability performance or even better look for independent certification from organisations like TÜV’s ‘OK Biodegradable WATER’ certification program that also assess if a product is eco-toxic or not.

Stephen said: “I think is very important to move the industry and the consumer to focus on just one thing with glitter, and that is, does it actually biodegrade in freshwater? Has it got certification to prove it does?  This is the benchmark of knowing whether a glitter is really as eco-friendly as it sounds.”

Click here to read the full article published by The Retail Institute.

To understand more about The Retail Institute and the services they offer please visit https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/the-retail-institute/