The brand’s founder shares details about transitioning to its new soft tube packaging.
Australian naturaceutical skincare brand, Vanessa Megan, has taken a ‘game-changing’ step towards its sustainability commitments. As of April 2025, its existing soft tubes will be replaced by sugarcane-based primary packaging with 100% recyclable plastic lids, creating a meaningful reduction in the brand’s environmental impact.
“We undertook a comparative assessment to evaluate the environmental impact of our packaging materials—sugarcane-based tubes and recyclable plastic lids—versus conventional aluminium and petroleum-based plastics,” Vanessa Megan, the brand’s founder, explains to PB. “The assessment process considered raw material sourcing, energy and water usage, greenhouse gas emissions, transportation impacts, end-of-life disposal, and recyclability. We also reviewed peer-reviewed studies and third-party sustainability reports specific to bioplastics and aluminium to ensure our findings were robust and in line with industry best practice.”
Vanessa Megan serves as a skincare partner at Victoria’s Alba Thermal Springs & Spa. Read more here.
The brand shared some findings of its assessment, outlining key factors in the decision to move to new packaging:
- Sugarcane is a fast-growing plant that requires minimal resources to cultivate, compared to traditional plastic sources derived from fossil fuels.
- This packaging material is biodegradable and compostable, helping to reduce the overall waste footprint associated with Vanessa Megan products.
- Utilising sugarcane helps avoid fossil fuels traditionally used to create plastics, further reducing the brand’s overall carbon emissions.
- The plastic lids are lighter than aluminium, which helps lower fuel consumption during transportation.
- Modern recyclable plastics are easier to process and reuse (compared to aluminium) in many regions, ensuring a higher chance of proper disposal and repurposing.
When consumers have finished their product, they should separate the plastic lid from the sugarcane tube. The lid can be disposed of in their household or business’s recycling bin, following local council guidelines to increase the likelihood of it being processed correctly at a recycling facility.
“Our sugarcane-based tubes are classified as industrially compostable; while they are made from renewable sugarcane, they require the high heat and controlled conditions of an industrial composting facility to break down efficiently,” Vanessa notes. “They are not suitable for home composting, as most household systems lack the necessary temperature and microbial activity.”
Vanessa adds that if the sugarcane tubes don’t reach a suitable composting facility, “they will remain inert but not biodegrade as quickly as in industrial settings.” If they do reach an industrial composting facility, they can break down within a few months and leave no harmful residue.
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