Seen the news lately? It’s grim. We’ve got sea life choking on plastic, homeless baby orangutans and an overall picture of more people than resources to go around. Admittedly, those heavy topics aren’t usually something to mull over while applying a moisturiser and eye cream before bed or restocking your shower gel and deodorant. But they should be.

How we live is a problem and even something as unremarkable as our daily grooming habits are having an enormous impact on the living planet. Consider this: at the last count the population of the UK was 66,040,200. Let’s assume that 90 per cent of the population has a plastic toothbrush, using 1-2 per year.

Add disposable razors to the scenario. Add shampoo bottles. It doesn’t take a maths genius to work out that that’s a hell of a lot of plastic waste per year – just from the UK.

Globally, an estimated 12 million tonnes are currently entering the oceans each year — that’s a full rubbish truck every minute – and depressingly this is projected to increase. Unless things change.

Why You Should Use Sustainable Grooming Products

Doorstep collection might make it look like we have recycling under control – we don’t. What doesn’t end up the sea ends up in landfill or incineration – all of which releases greenhouse gases. Plastic recycling rates in the UK are pitiful, and until recently we were shipping most of it to China (which no longer wants it). Most plastics cannot be recycled more than once anyway, and the process uses more energy than with glass or aluminium.

In the right circumstances plastic can be a wondrous substance, but in the age of ‘single-use’ convenience it’s become a curse – and it’s finding its way into our water, food and bodies.

It’s not just packaging that’s the problem, but what’s inside it too. Palm oil is used in the vast proportion of processed foods including biscuits, cakes and spreads – but also in personal care products like toothpaste, shower gel and shampoo. Manufacturers like it because it’s cheap and – to get a bit technical – it’s a good source of long chain fatty acids that help create emulsions.