Beauty and the Bees – how this Tasmanian is turning waste avoidance into a business advantage
From humble beginnings selling handmade natural skincare products on a card table at Salamanca market 25 years ago, Jill Saunders’ persistence is really paying off.
Jill is the founder of Beauty and the Bees, a Tasmanian business that prides itself on using Earth friendly packaging and edible ingredients, which are continuing to grow in popularity. It is thanks to this ethos that Jill estimates that Beauty and the Bees has helped save about 1 million plus pieces of plastic from being discarded in landfill.
Jill has taken a back-to-basics approach to making skincare products from high quality food ingredients, with the business commencing from her home kitchen. After outgrowing a number of locations and factories, the retail outlet for Beauty and the Bees product is now based in Salamanca – a return to the place that got everything started.
Seeing the damage plastic was making in places like South East Asia, Jill set out from the start to use as little plastic as possible.
And while admitting that “it’s been very, very hard” to find alternatives, Beauty and the Bees products are typically housed in glass, tin, paper and cardboard containers. The business shreds second-hand cardboard with its own shredder for use when packing orders. It also uses biodegradable corn-starch spoons instead of plastic with its creams. And while there are some plastic lids used on some products, Jill is confident there will be more alternatives coming onto the market in the next five years.
By rethinking the way her business views waste, this persistence is delivering benefits not only to Beauty and the Bees customers, but to all Tasmanians.
Download the Beauty and the Bees case study here:
Rethink Waste aims to improve our efforts at reducing, reusing and