Mary Kay (China) Cosmetics Co., Ltd.: Developing the solution to biodegradable filler

Company Profile
Since its founding in 1963, Mary Kay has become the world’s top beauty brand and distributor with annual sales of over USD 3.5 billion. It has spread its business to more than 35 countries and regions in the world and employed over 3 million salesmen. In 1995, Mary Kay entered the Chinese market and in 2006 it upgraded its Asia-Pacific production centre in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, which is the only overseas production center outside the United States. After a dozen years of development, Mary Kay (China) has set up branches in 35 provinces and cities across China and has made it its largest market in the world. 
Challenge
With the rapid development of online shopping market, there is a growing demand for packages. Most of packages, however, are wrapped up with polystyrene packaging materials which are unfriendly to the environment. Such materials are prone to giving off irritating odor in the process of production, and they are non-biodegradable. This is a problem confronting Mary Kay.
Biodegradable packaging materials are generally used only for the protection of precision instruments and antiques because of its high cost. We can hardly find suppliers who can provide environment-friendly cosmetic filler in China. Therefore, how to implement green procurement in Chinese business environment has become a great challenge to the company.
Solution
In 2007, Mary Kay headquarters, located in Dallas, US, started to use environment-friendly biodegradable materials as filler. In the meanwhile, Mary Kay China also planned the procurement of the same material.
After Mary Kay China spent six months contacting and visiting more than 20 suppliers, it achieved intent of cooperation with Huali Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., the only manufacturer of bio-degradable materials in China. As a member of China Association of Environmental Protection Industry, Huali’s values happened to coincide with Mary Kay’s concept of creating environmental value.
Previously, Huali only sold its PSM foam cushion particles to foreign countries and didn’t produce packaging filler that is applicable to the package of cosmetics. After a year of exploration by Procurement and Logistic Departments of Mary Kay China and Huali Company, they developed a plan for the overall transformation of filler production equipment. The specially developed foaming machine has satisfied Mary Kay’s demands with the same cost per cubic as that of traditional foaming materials. In 2011, Huali Company applied for and received a patent for its bio-based plastic foam machine. Besides, both sides reached an agreement in the supply mode, adopting close-by supply to reduce energy consumption of transportation.
Achievements
Economic benefits
In practice, Mary Kay finds this kind of filler causes less breakage than previous polystyrene foam filler and waste paper. The breakage rate has decreased over 50%, equivalent to saving the retail value of products by 1.5 million yuan per year. Furthermore, the lower breakage has lead to less refunds, exchanges and complaints but higher customer satisfaction. According to statistics, Mary Kay’s customer satisfaction increased from 97% to 99% in 2013.
Environmental benefits
The conventional fillers such as foaming polystyrene are made from plastic extracted from petroleum while Mary Kay’s bio-degradable materials are made from corn and potato starch, which not only reduces the use of petroleum, but also avoid emission of “three wastes” (waste water, gas and residue) in the process of production. As the material is completely biodegradable, the compost soil generated by its degradation is also beneficial to crops. Since it adopted this material in September, 2010, Mary Kay has utilized about 18,560 tons, reducing carbon emission by nearly 74,240 tons.
Social benefits
The wide use of this material in the cosmetics industry has also facilitated the green transformation in cosmetics and plastics processing industry. Apart from its superior environmental performance, it has become a new product model. The bio-degradable foaming machine costs only 10% of polystyrene foaming equipment. Its small size and flexible processing site can greatly reduce logistics cost. The Secretary General of China Plastics Processing Industry Association (CPPIA) has spoken highly of this material and believed it can be applied to more industries and fields.
Prospect

Mary Kay China will promote green procurement in its supply chain. While improving green procurement and supply chain management, it will effectively enhance its capability of sustainable development to promote common development with stakeholders.