Tom Branna, Chief Content Officer04.20.24
Two former personal care companies executives left the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space for the fast-moving world of sustainability at TerraCycle. Kathy Pazakis, TerraCycle’s chief commercial officer, was a leader at some of the most influential beauty brands of the past decade. A strategist and product lead at Estée Lauder Companies and Glossier, Pazakis couldn’t unsee the amount of wastefulness that’s prevalent in the beauty industry. From the waste created by “unboxing” experiences to the waste from samples and product packaging, Pazakis saw consumers demanding more sustainable solutions from their favorite brands. It’s what drove her to TerraCycle – that, and the fact that this is where she saw beauty and all CPG industries headed, to greener practices.
Marie-Agnès Daumas was a marketing executive at Colgate-Palmolive selling toothpaste when she woke up one day and asked herself “If I die tomorrow, is this the legacy I want to leave for my daughter?” Sustainability marketing initiatives like the “Turn Off The Tap'' campaign was the spark Daumas needed to pursue her passion to inspire the next generation of leaders to save the planet. Now, she leads TerraCycle’s retail division with a mission to give brands and retailers the same wakeup call – with partners like Nordstrom, Walmart, Lowblaws and Monoprix, Daumas is already demonstrating that investing in sustainability can drive profitable revenue.
Happi recently spoke with Pazakis and Daumas to learn more about their journeys and how TerraCycle is helping the personal care industry rethink beauty waste.
Happi: Tell me about your backstory. What did you do prior to joining TerraCycle? What did you learn in those roles and why leave to join TerraCycle?
Kathy Pazakis: During my time in the beauty industry, I had the privilege of learning how beauty companies innovate and develop new products. When you develop and manufacture physical products, you see firsthand just how many things that you’re creating and putting into the world.
At my last company (Estée Lauder), we spent a lot of time reading comments and message boards and talking to our community. And what consumers were saying, with increasing urgency, was that they wanted their beauty brands to be sustainable and responsible. This was what led me to join TerraCycle – I wanted to take real, tangible action to address the waste crisis.
Marie-Agnes Daumas: At Colgate-Palmolive, I was a regional then global marketing executive. Through these roles I grew to understand the importance of people, both as professionals and individuals and the collective power human resources possess to facilitate change. In my time at Colgate-Palmolive, I learned a pivotal lesson: the capacity to solve waste, while driving profitable revenue, can serve as an inspiration to empower the next generation of leaders.
Happi: The trash generated by beauty company packaging is pretty ugly. Do you get discouraged or see opportunities? Can you elaborate on where real change has occurred and how it can be improved even more?
Pazakis: I’m encouraged by the beauty industry because in my experience, brands really do try to listen to consumer feedback. Change may not happen as quickly as we all would like, but I think there’s been some interesting innovation in designing for reuse, in brands eliminating unnecessary packaging—remember when beauty products used to come with two or three layers of packaging? And both brands and retailers are running specialized recycling programs specifically for beauty waste.
Happi: Nothing is a quick fix, but is there some packaging switch that beauty companies can make right now that would improve recyclability rates?
Pazakis: This really depends on the category. In categories that use larger format packages, like hair or body, reuse and refill are great solutions. And then to encourage recycling, companies can use clear or light-colored bottles made of the most commonly recycled plastic types (1, 2, and sometimes 5), and make their packaging easy to separate for recycling. But most personal care and beauty packaging will never be locally recyclable (via curbside recycling services) due to the small size of the products, the multiple materials used in the package, and the residual product remaining in the package.
Happi: What about retailers? What role do they play in improving recyclability rates? In your experience, what programs work, what don't and why?
Pazakis: Retailers are an incredibly important player in providing access to recycling hard-to-recycle products and packages. We find that retail recycling programs work very well when they are easy to access; that is, easy to find. And there are clear instructions for consumer use. For example, collection bins and kiosks at front-of-store or in specific locations like a recycling hub, have strong compliance rates. Non-compliance happens when bins do not have clear signage—as they can be confused with trash or municipal recycling. Or non-compliance may be occur if consumers don’t understand what items can be accepted in which bins.
We are also seeing some retailers, particularly in Europe, leverage recycling in an interesting way. They are tying recycling to rewards and coupons for future purchases; early data shows that this does increase foot traffic and number of visits to the store.
Daumas: I agree with Kathy, retailers play a critical role in improving the recycling rate. In addition, retailers face the dual challenge of protecting the environment while also maintaining their customers' purchasing power. As a result, retailers are implementing large-scale recycling solutions for their customers, in-store and/or online via their e-commerce platform, often with simple incentives like Recycle & Save.
Many retailers have partnered with TerraCycle to launch recycling programs that offer free and convenient solutions for customers. As an example, You Can Recycle Your Quo Beauty Empties at Shoppers Drug Mart.
And other retail partners, such as Kroger, even use the recycled materials from their programs to construct playgrounds which they donate to local communities.
Happi: What steps should the beauty consumer take to reduce the amount of beauty packaging in landfills?
Pazakis: The most important step consumers can take is considering whether they need to purchase a new product at all. Reduction is the first and best step to reduce the amount of beauty packaging that ends up in landfills or incinerators. The next best option is reuse, and I am excited to see more beauty and personal care products make the switch to reusable or refillable packaging.
Then, it’s important to ensure that your beauty products are recycled when you’re done with them. Unlike landfill or waste-to-energy, recycling allows materials to be reused in other products and packages, negating the need to extract natural resources to create new materials. Many larger-sized body and hair care packages can be recycled through curbside programs, but you will need to find specialized recycling programs for smaller packages and packages that are made of mixed materials (like most color cosmetics, or skincare with sprays and pumps).
Happi: I have a daughter with a degree in engineering who's worked in aviation and tech startups. She's considering joining a company on the West Coast that is similar to TerraCycle. What advice would you give her, and any woman pursuing a career in STEM in general and waste management in particular?
Pazakis: We are at an exciting and encouraging moment where there is a notable increase in innovation, specifically in sustainability and in the waste management space. I’d encourage your daughter to pursue a career with a company she is passionate about, and to build sustainability and social objectives directly into the growth plan versus treating it as a separate or specialized initiative. If these goals aren’t driving business value, such as attracting new consumers, building loyalty, or creating new revenue streams, they can easily be deprioritized or underfunded. The opportunity is to change the way companies do business, and shift mindsets and business models from a linear to a circular economy.
Daumas: This is very exciting! I too have a daughter who will be graduating next year with a degree in arts, focusing specifically on photography. She uses her photographs as a platform to initiate conversations on challenging topics. The advice I give to my daughter, and would also share with yours, is to understand her purpose, what drives her, and what she would like to change. From there, she can determine where her passion would be most impactful and how she can best make a difference. •
Marie-Agnès Daumas was a marketing executive at Colgate-Palmolive selling toothpaste when she woke up one day and asked herself “If I die tomorrow, is this the legacy I want to leave for my daughter?” Sustainability marketing initiatives like the “Turn Off The Tap'' campaign was the spark Daumas needed to pursue her passion to inspire the next generation of leaders to save the planet. Now, she leads TerraCycle’s retail division with a mission to give brands and retailers the same wakeup call – with partners like Nordstrom, Walmart, Lowblaws and Monoprix, Daumas is already demonstrating that investing in sustainability can drive profitable revenue.
Happi recently spoke with Pazakis and Daumas to learn more about their journeys and how TerraCycle is helping the personal care industry rethink beauty waste.
Happi: Tell me about your backstory. What did you do prior to joining TerraCycle? What did you learn in those roles and why leave to join TerraCycle?
Kathy Pazakis: During my time in the beauty industry, I had the privilege of learning how beauty companies innovate and develop new products. When you develop and manufacture physical products, you see firsthand just how many things that you’re creating and putting into the world.
At my last company (Estée Lauder), we spent a lot of time reading comments and message boards and talking to our community. And what consumers were saying, with increasing urgency, was that they wanted their beauty brands to be sustainable and responsible. This was what led me to join TerraCycle – I wanted to take real, tangible action to address the waste crisis.
Marie-Agnes Daumas: At Colgate-Palmolive, I was a regional then global marketing executive. Through these roles I grew to understand the importance of people, both as professionals and individuals and the collective power human resources possess to facilitate change. In my time at Colgate-Palmolive, I learned a pivotal lesson: the capacity to solve waste, while driving profitable revenue, can serve as an inspiration to empower the next generation of leaders.
Happi: The trash generated by beauty company packaging is pretty ugly. Do you get discouraged or see opportunities? Can you elaborate on where real change has occurred and how it can be improved even more?
Pazakis: I’m encouraged by the beauty industry because in my experience, brands really do try to listen to consumer feedback. Change may not happen as quickly as we all would like, but I think there’s been some interesting innovation in designing for reuse, in brands eliminating unnecessary packaging—remember when beauty products used to come with two or three layers of packaging? And both brands and retailers are running specialized recycling programs specifically for beauty waste.
Happi: Nothing is a quick fix, but is there some packaging switch that beauty companies can make right now that would improve recyclability rates?
Pazakis: This really depends on the category. In categories that use larger format packages, like hair or body, reuse and refill are great solutions. And then to encourage recycling, companies can use clear or light-colored bottles made of the most commonly recycled plastic types (1, 2, and sometimes 5), and make their packaging easy to separate for recycling. But most personal care and beauty packaging will never be locally recyclable (via curbside recycling services) due to the small size of the products, the multiple materials used in the package, and the residual product remaining in the package.
Happi: What about retailers? What role do they play in improving recyclability rates? In your experience, what programs work, what don't and why?
Pazakis: Retailers are an incredibly important player in providing access to recycling hard-to-recycle products and packages. We find that retail recycling programs work very well when they are easy to access; that is, easy to find. And there are clear instructions for consumer use. For example, collection bins and kiosks at front-of-store or in specific locations like a recycling hub, have strong compliance rates. Non-compliance happens when bins do not have clear signage—as they can be confused with trash or municipal recycling. Or non-compliance may be occur if consumers don’t understand what items can be accepted in which bins.
We are also seeing some retailers, particularly in Europe, leverage recycling in an interesting way. They are tying recycling to rewards and coupons for future purchases; early data shows that this does increase foot traffic and number of visits to the store.
Daumas: I agree with Kathy, retailers play a critical role in improving the recycling rate. In addition, retailers face the dual challenge of protecting the environment while also maintaining their customers' purchasing power. As a result, retailers are implementing large-scale recycling solutions for their customers, in-store and/or online via their e-commerce platform, often with simple incentives like Recycle & Save.
Many retailers have partnered with TerraCycle to launch recycling programs that offer free and convenient solutions for customers. As an example, You Can Recycle Your Quo Beauty Empties at Shoppers Drug Mart.
And other retail partners, such as Kroger, even use the recycled materials from their programs to construct playgrounds which they donate to local communities.
Happi: What steps should the beauty consumer take to reduce the amount of beauty packaging in landfills?
Pazakis: The most important step consumers can take is considering whether they need to purchase a new product at all. Reduction is the first and best step to reduce the amount of beauty packaging that ends up in landfills or incinerators. The next best option is reuse, and I am excited to see more beauty and personal care products make the switch to reusable or refillable packaging.
Then, it’s important to ensure that your beauty products are recycled when you’re done with them. Unlike landfill or waste-to-energy, recycling allows materials to be reused in other products and packages, negating the need to extract natural resources to create new materials. Many larger-sized body and hair care packages can be recycled through curbside programs, but you will need to find specialized recycling programs for smaller packages and packages that are made of mixed materials (like most color cosmetics, or skincare with sprays and pumps).
Happi: I have a daughter with a degree in engineering who's worked in aviation and tech startups. She's considering joining a company on the West Coast that is similar to TerraCycle. What advice would you give her, and any woman pursuing a career in STEM in general and waste management in particular?
Pazakis: We are at an exciting and encouraging moment where there is a notable increase in innovation, specifically in sustainability and in the waste management space. I’d encourage your daughter to pursue a career with a company she is passionate about, and to build sustainability and social objectives directly into the growth plan versus treating it as a separate or specialized initiative. If these goals aren’t driving business value, such as attracting new consumers, building loyalty, or creating new revenue streams, they can easily be deprioritized or underfunded. The opportunity is to change the way companies do business, and shift mindsets and business models from a linear to a circular economy.
Daumas: This is very exciting! I too have a daughter who will be graduating next year with a degree in arts, focusing specifically on photography. She uses her photographs as a platform to initiate conversations on challenging topics. The advice I give to my daughter, and would also share with yours, is to understand her purpose, what drives her, and what she would like to change. From there, she can determine where her passion would be most impactful and how she can best make a difference. •