SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainable care

In the form of “mBlack”, the Minelli Group has developed cosmetics packaging that is made from bio-based material instead of plastic. The innovative idea is based on a renewable resource, the company’s own wood waste.

1/30/2024

Located in the Bergamo region, the Italian family-owned corporation has specialized in the production of high-quality wood components since 1937. The production process generates around 150 tons of wood waste every month, which was previously mainly used to generate energy for the company’s own heating systems. Now the Group’s Minelli Materials division has found a new way to go circular: Biochar is produced through thermal decomposition of the recycled wood waste. Embedded in natural polymers and supplemented with materials such as cork, the basis is formed: a biomass from which firm jars, pots and lipstick tubes are molded in the next step. The shape of the packaging and the proportion of deep black biochar can be custom-defined, depending on whether it is only meant to replace a particular color pigment or form a large part of the mixture. At the end of their lifecycle, the “mBlack” packaging products can simply be composted. (am)