Packaging waste from personal care products is a persistent problem for the industry. This is particularly true for some types of packaging components because they are not currently curbside recyclable, and plastic recycling rates in the U.S. appear to be stubbornly low. While refillable formats and recovery programs for hard to recycle packaging containers and components are gaining some traction, the industry still has plenty of room to innovate in ways that are preventative.

Prose Beauty has adopted a smart solution for preventing packaging waste from a notoriously difficult component to recycle: pumps. On web pages for products that may require the use of a pump component to dispense product, the company has deployed an opt-out feature for that particular component. If you don’t want a new pump after ordering your first product you can simply select a no-new-pump option when checking out.

Prevention is a top-tier strategy when it comes to addressing pollution. But we also need to look at options for reducing the impacts associated with the materials we do end up using in our products. Currently it doesn’t appear that the company is using post-consumer recycled content in any of their packaging systems. Using recycling glass, plastic, paper, or metal in place of virgin materials can significantly reduce the environmental impacts of those packaging systems.