When Terence Chung was a schoolteacher, he realized his students were on board with sustainability as a practice they should observe in and out of the classroom. He also saw, though, how sustainability didn’t seem to be a concern of theirs when it came to the cosmetics they were using, as he explained to Sourced:
“In a lesson one day everyone got their cosmetics out of their bags, and we realized none of them were sustainable. Brands may say that their products are green or natural, but if they really are they’re likely to be premium, and therefore expensive.”
A biochemist by training, he decided there was room for innovation in cosmetics, particularly in lip balms, at a price point that wouldn’t strain the pocketbooks of consumers – even teens.
The result? Chung launched a line of organic lip balms, Fruu, made from discarded fruit waste. The flavors include pomegranate, mango, coconut, and avocado. The raw materials are readily available: In Chung’s native U.K., supermarkets toss out 300,000 metric tons of food every year.
After importing the fruit waste from factories on the Continent, the balms are manufactured in a spare room at Chung’s home, using lemon seed and watermelon oils, even the skin and leftover pieces of avocado.
His next steps? To make Fruu’s packaging recyclable, then eventually setting up his own processing facilities so he can source fruit waste from within the U.K.
Our take? You can’t argue with entrepreneurship and innovation like this. We’ve seen other entrepreneurs who’ve risen to the task of producing sustainable or eco-friendly cosmetic and skin care products. Not only is Terence Chung producing a unique, price-competitive product, he’s also still teaching others, in a way, by showing how sustainability and conscientious capitalism have a role in beauty and personal care products. It’s a lesson more and more formulators, manufacturers and marketers are embracing, and they’re being rewarded by consumers for making the effort.
