Arata's zero waste packaging goal

Delhi-based personal care brand Arata, founded by Dhruv Madhok and Dhruv Bhasin, has been using 100% recycled and recyclable plastic packaging across its entire product range, thus becoming the first personal care company in India to do so.

According to the company, it uses waste plastic from oceans and landfills across the globe and sanitise, pelletise, melt, and remoulds the plastic into its packaging. It also doesn’t use any single-use plastic in their secondary packaging, such as plastic bags, shrink wrap or excessive tape. The labels, too, are printed using food grade, biodegradable ink.

Launched in February 2018, Arata is the first Indian brand to be EWG-certified. It is a community-led lifestyle brand with an entire ecosystem built around the core philosophy of clean formulations, responsible practices, and sustainability.

In a blog post uploaded at its website, the brand highlights the benefits of post-consumer recycled (PCR) packaging. Accordingly, the major benefits of PCR packaging are that it is environment-friendly while new plastic means new waste, plus it reduces toxicity.

Instead of producing new plastic, which eventually ends up in the ocean or in a waste facility somewhere, PCR diverts, recycles, and repurposes existing toxic plastic. In this way, it reduces the toxic burden we’re forcing onto our environment and our ecosystems, and well, reduces the suffering caused to our wildlife, which is always at the receiving end of our harmful decisions.

Plastic is created from non-renewable sources, such as harmful fossil fuels, which are extremely detrimental to our environment and to our health. PCR is less wasteful than virgin plastic.

Arata doesn’t use any single-use plastic for its secondary packaging

Zero-waste packaging reduces toxicity by reducing the amount of waste material scattered onto our planet.

“At Arata, our goal is to go plastic negative. We manufacture our bottles and tubes using up to 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, found in the ocean and land waste, and our labels are printed using biodegradable food-grade ink. Every element of our packaging is thought-through with an intention to reduce toxicity. The environmental burden stops with us,” the brand writes on its website.

The brand also believes in 100% transparency with its consumers, a testament to which is the disclosed ingredient lists of product labels on its website, explaining where they come from, what they do, and how each formula is made, so that consumers can make the informed and right choice.

The brand, which sells its products mostly through its website, has developed its product range using plant-powered, clean, safe and effective natural ingredients; sourced sustainably, produced ethically, and packaged in up to 100% recycled packaging from the ocean and land waste.

The brand manufactures its tubes using up to 100% post-consumer recyclates

All Arata products are completely free from parabens, sulphates, mineral oil, and harmful synthetic preservatives, which may pose potential risks to the human neurological, hormonal and reproductive system. Arata is also cruelty-free and a vegan brand.

“We wanted to be non-toxic inside and out. Not only did we want non-toxic ingredients, but we also did not want to contribute to the plastic pandemic plaguing our world,” the brand writes on its website. “We are the first personal care company in India to use up to 100% recycled plastic packaging across our entire product range. We don't use any single-use plastic in our secondary packaging, such as plastic bags, shrink wrap, or excessive tape. Our policy includes using biodegradable cardboard boxes and no excess plastic covering while shipping products.”