Although cotton may seem more sustainable than synthetic products for makeup and skin cleansing, it takes about 3,100 liters of water to produce 100 makeup cottons. In addition, these cottons are sold in plastic packaging.
Wet wipes, preferred for their ease of use, are disposable, non-recyclable and come in plastic packaging. This makes them harmful to the environment and leads to large piles of waste. In addition, some wet wipes contain microplastics in their tissue. So, wet wipes can pose a threat to both your health and the environment.
Within the scope of the 2024 Plastic-Free July events, IMU Sustainability Club collaborated with Juveco Medicine and Dermocosmetics to move people away from plastic-packaged and non-recyclable disposable makeup cotton pads and makeup remover wipes and to popularize the use of sustainable alternatives, washable makeup pads. For this purpose, our students from the Sustainability Club and our Sustainability Office team visited the offices and social areas in Göztepe North Campus on July 25, 2024, provided information about the resource use, water consumption and environmental pollution caused by the consumption of disposable makeup cotton pads and makeup remover wipes, and presented reusable makeup pads to our campus community members. Thanks to this collaboration, a total of 145 campus communities stopped using disposable makeup cotton pads and received sustainable makeup pads free of charge. In addition, in order to raise awareness in the public outside of our campus community, 5 more people were presented with washable makeup pads as a result of the information and raffle made on the social media accounts of the IMU Sustainability Club and Sustainability Office on the same day.
During the event, the project’s academic advisors explained to all participants that while cotton make-up pads seem more sustainable than synthetic wipes, cotton production requires a significant amount of water consumption. The team stated that approximately 3,000 liters of water are required for one pack of make-up cotton, and that this corresponds to the water consumption of approximately 47 long showers. It was emphasized that these contaminated products cannot be recycled, and therefore the consumption of these products use resources, but also generates a large amount of waste. On the other hand, it was stated that the microplastic particles in the make-up removal products in the form of wipes pose a health risk and also pollute water resources.
Juveco, which sponsored the event, stated that in addition to supporting domestic production, they are committed to the principles of using natural resources in the most effective and sustainable way and that they adopt sustainable manufactoring principles in the production of their products. However, the company, which draws attention to the fact that in addition to corporate sustainability principles for sustainable living, consumer behavior should also be sustainability-focused, emphasized that they aim to create an incentive by giving reusable products to their users at certain periods and explained that washable make-up pads are at the forefront of this incentive. The Juveco team, which draws attention to the fact that cleansing cottons/wipes, which are one of the important parts of skin care, not only consume resources but also create significant environmental pollution due to their non-recyclability, conveyed the information that 1 washable make-up pad can prevent 1,800 disposable cottons from polluting tha nature per year. Juveco operations manager Melikşah ÇAY, who stated that they aim to ensure sustainability in their environment as well as their own product production, stated that as a company, they carry out corporate social responsibility projects to place recycling bins in living spaces and thus encourage recycling in order to build an environmentally friendly lifestyle.
With this social responsibility project carried out jointly by the IMU Sustainability Club and Juveco, 3.2 kilograms of plastic waste was prevented from being generated and this waste from remaining in nature for 450 years. By preventing this amount of plastic waste, 4,045 kg of greenhouse gas was prevented from being released into the atmosphere. Thus, by reducing the amount of plastic waste in our campus areas, in addition to contributing to our University’s zero waste project, it also contributed to reducing people’s environmental footprint.
The “Plastic-Free July” social responsibility project, which has been managed by IMU Sustainability Office since 2022, was carried out by IMU Sustainability Club this year. The academic consultancy of the project was undertaken by Res.Asst. Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK from IMU Sustainability Office team, who is also the academic advisor of IMU Sustainability Club, the club president Res.Asst. Furkan ERUÇAR and Lect. Zehra SAVAN.
Within the scope of the 2024 activities of the “Plastic-Free July” project, IMU Sustainability Club (IMUSUS) invited people to challenge them to remove a single-use plastic product they use in their daily lives every day for a month and step into a plastic-free life. During the challenge, environmental awareness was raised by providing information about the waste generation and environmental pollution caused by these plastic products every day through social media accounts. Following each of these informative social media posts, people were presented with sustainable alternatives with natural ingredients and packaging that do not produce plastic waste, which they could use instead of that plastic-containing product. IMUSUS also collaborated with 18 companies in Turkey and the world that are pioneers in sustainability and have sustainability labels in order to carry this awareness to consumer behavior. Thanks to this cooperation, on certain days of the challenge, with the sponsorship support provided by the companies, sustainable products were presented to both our students and staff and the public in order to create a new behavioral change in their daily lives. Thus, while enabling people to take the first step towards a plastic-free life, it also contributed to reducing the amount of single-use plastic waste and the environmental footprint of our campus community.
“Plastic-Free July” movement has been celebrated around the world since 2011, challenging people to eliminate single-use plastic products from their lives by raising awareness about plastic pollution and the amount of plastic they use.
