Industry News
Unilever Australia & New Zealand announced it is planning to
use at least 25% recycled plastic for the packaging of some of its
brands such as OMO, Dove, Surf, Sunsilk and TRESemmé. This is
expected to create an end market for around 750 tonnes of recycled
plastic per year and help accelerate Australia’s circular economy.
Unilever previously announced all of its plastic packages will be fully
reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025 and use at least 25%
recycled plastic packaging.
SC Johnson has announced it now discloses fragrance ingredients
down to 0.01% of the product formula across its portfolio of brands
in an effort to boost ingredient transparency. This builds on SC
Johnson’s WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com ingredient website launched in
2009, a comprehensive list of fragrance ingredients in 2012, website
product-specific fragrance disclosures in 2015 and a list of potential
skin allergens in products in 2017. SC Johnson also revealed the
scientific criteria behind its Greenlist program, which guides how
SC Johnson selects ingredients to protect human health and the
environment.
Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. of Johnson & Johnson announced
phase three clinical studies of its Esketamine Nasal Spray demonstrated
rapid improvements in depressive symptoms in adult patients
with treatment-resistant depression, when combined with a newly
initiated oral antidepressant. If approved by the FDA, esketamine
would be one of the first new approaches to treat refractory major
depressive disorder in 50 years.
L’Oréal and ModiFace, its recent augmented reality and artificial
intelligence acquisition, have created a long-term agreement with
Facebook. This will create new augmented reality experiences
through Facebook Camera products to try on makeup brands
such as Maybelline, L’Oréal Paris, NYX Professional Makeup,
Lancôme, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Urban Decay
and Shu Uemura, in a digital format. NYX Professional Makeup
launched the first experience the end of August. L’Oréal executives
noted that augmented reality is becoming critical for product and
brand discovery and purchase.
Crown Holdings, Inc.’s Spartanburg, SC aerosol plant will offset
one-third of its annual electrical usage with a new five-acre solar panel
array. This is part of Crown’s 2020 sustainability initiative and is the
first use of solar power energy at the company worldwide. Crown
worked with Keystone Power Holdings, its affiliate KPH Construction
Services and Hannah Solar to build the project, which includes
924.6 kilowatts with 2,680 photovoltaic modules. The system is
expected to produce 1,310 megawatt hours per year for the plant, or
approximately enough energy to power 500 homes.
40 Spray September 2018
Action Technology, a unit of Tekni-Plex, is expanding its
building and adding a new rubber mixing system at its Schaumburg,
IL facility to manufacture gaskets for aerosol valves and
trigger pumps used in food/beverage, pharmaceutical, personal
care, industrial and household products. A similar expansion
was completed at the company’s Milan, Italy plant.
On June, 20, 2018, the European Commission (EC) adopted
amendments to Regulation (EC) No. 1223/2009, aka the Cosmetics
Regulation, regarding permissible sunscreens.
The UV filter 2,2’-methylene-bis(6-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4-
(1,1,3,3-tetramethyl-butyl)phenol)/bisoctrizole (INCI: Methylene
bis-Benzotriazolyl Tetramethylbutylphenol, or MBBT; CAS
103597-45-1) is now approved for cosmetic products and sunscreens.
Further, as reported in the Official Journal of the European
Union, the use of the nano form of MBBT is now authorized
for use at a maximum concentration of 10% w/w. Exceptions
would be in cases where products may pose an inhalation risk.
Both sunscreen entries were added to Annex VI of the regulation.
These moves respond to a previous Scientific Committee
on Consumer Safety (SCCS) opinion concluding that the use
of MBBT (nano) as a UV filter, at a maximum concentration
of 10% w/w in topical products, does not pose a risk to human
health. The approvals also are in effort to keep current with
technical and scientific progress.
U.S. specialty chemicals market volumes ended the second quarter
on a solid note, increasing 0.4% in June and 4.8% year-overyear
on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis, according
to the American Chemistry Council (ACC). Of the 28 specialty
chemical segments ACC monitors, 18 expanded in June, nine experienced
decline and one featured no change. On a year-to-year
basis, there were gains among 21 market and functional specialty
chemical segments. However, volumes were down in seven segments.
ACC added that chemistry directly touches over 96% of
all manufactured goods.
BASF was recognized by the Natural Products Association
(NPA) with a “Novel Ingredient & Science Award”
for having the largest selection of certified ingredients
for cosmetic manufacturers according to the
NPA Natural Standard, a set of guidelines to determine
true “natural” products. BASF received the
honor at the 25th Annual NPA Awards in Las Vegas
in June. NPA’s standard encompasses all cosmetic
personal care products regulated and defined by the
FDA, and is based on four evaluated criteria: natural
ingredients, safety, responsibility and sustainabil-