Sustainable Treatments

100% RECYCLABLE PROFESSIONAL PRODUCT

We are striving towards all Medik8 professional products used in our pro treatments being 100% recyclable; caps, pumps, bottles, everything. As you can imagine, this is a big undertaking but something we are working towards every single day. This is not greenwashing. This is an honest commitment that we are striving to achieve over the coming months and we invite you to stay part of the journey by tracking our progress on our sustainability dashboards (see above). We have already made enormous strides towards our goal, with a few more products to find solutions for (currently deemed 'unrecyclable': but watch this space.)

Pumps have been our biggest challenge to date. Regular skincare pumps are just not recyclable. Until now. The issue with recycling them lays with the mix of plastics used to make them and the spring in the pump that makes the mechanism work. Only certain plastics can work together in the recycling process. So we have worked tirelessly to find a solution and glad to say we have finally cracked it. These pumps have been in clinics around the world since September 2019 onwards. You may notice them because they are white instead of the usual black. But there's more...

INGREDIENT FOCUS

Since 2009, we have always been known as the 'green chemistry' brand; making products using an energy efficient process; from sourcing of ingredients to initial research and final manufacturing. But we wanted to take a closer look at our 'ingredient deck' (as it is known) to be 100% certain of every ingredient's origin and impact on the environment. That's why we are carrying out various 'ingredient audits' to look at our INCI lists (the formal ingredient lists per product) searching for ways we can improve. As such a hot topic, palm oil was one of the first areas we tackled.

ZERO PALM OIL

You'll be assured to hear that since 2017, Medik8 products have had 0kg of pure palm oil content. This is despite tens of thousands of kilos of bulk produced every year. However, we still indirectly use some palm oil derivatives (some of the suppliers we work with use them). So we are working alongside our partners to cut our use of it where possible and where we can't, we are looking to use sustainable palm oil derivatives certified by the RSPO instead (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil - the globally recognised body for Palm Oil sustainability in the world.)

WE HATE WASTE

We think digital first. Whenever we create some content about the brand, we really think about if it needs printing or not. We actively decided to keep a lot of information digital to help preserve our environment. For example, our Therapists' Training Manual is fully digital; so no printing out of hefty big binders of paper that are out of date as soon as they are printed. We also have a comprehensive website packed with useful information, so that we need to print that little bit less for in-clinic use. But there's more.

MORE FORMULA. LESS WASTE.

All of our professional cream bottles (now Post Consumer Recycled (PCR)) also now allow for more formula to flow out because of the materials we are using. We have moved from an industry standard HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) to PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) material which means creams and lotion slide out more easily so therapists can get even more out and not waste a single drop (wastage rate has been improved by 11%, in fact. A small detail, but one we just had to address.)

We are constantly looking for further ways to improve, so do let us know if you think there's something else we could tackle. Send us a direct message on Instagram @medik8_cyprus and join the conversation. We are not dogmatic in our approach, but open and honest about what we are doing and why, so we can do our bit to preserve the world we love as it is.

100% VEGAN

From July 2019, every single product manufactured by Medik8 (both in the retail and professional ranges) is 100% vegan-friendly. Naturally, there will be a transition phase as products already in market sell through, but nothing from July onwards left our production facility that isn't perfect for vegans. While it's trendy to have vegan-friendly formulas, we just didn't see the point of manufacturing with anything else. We saw an opportunity to improve things. So we did.

There were only 5 products in our portfolio which needed reformulating so Medik8 would be suitable for all our vegan fans. It was just a question of removing minor ingredients like yoghurt extract from some legacy products to achieve total vegan friendliness and we couldn't be happier. You can read about our journey to 100% vegan here.

RECYCLED NOT JUST RECYCLABLE.

We are constantly reviewing how and where we work to see where we can make improvements. In 2018, we removed 3 tonnes of plastic from our packaging and replaced it with small FSC card inserts. All our product cartons, collateral materials; leaflets, posters, bags, boxes, ribbons and alike are printed on FSC certified recycled and recyclable materials with soya inks to preserve the environment. We are constantly looking for ways to improve so do let us know if you think there's something else we could tackle. Start the conversation over on our Instagram page: @medik8_cyprus.