Look & Image: Due to its "natural" origin, it inevitably appears sustainable and valuable, favoured by premium natural cosmetics brands. Not to be confused with wood fibres, which are recycled in the form of bio-based polymers.

Area of application: Very limited. Mainly used as lids for cosmetics glass jars, more rarely also as solid wood jars or cases with plastic lining.

Cost: Relatively high. Not even considering the rising price of wood, simply turning threads from wood is significantly more expensive than the injection moulding process for plastics.

Production: Ideally, wood and bamboo from sustainable cultivation.

Transport/shipping: Shatterproof and reasonably weather-resistant, weight varies depending on the type of wood and area of use and thus also the shipping costs.

Recycling: Using Germany as an example, wood used for cosmetics belongs to category A II and is disposed of in residual waste and then incinerated. Alternatively, consumers can return it to recycling yards. As this is impractical and inconvenient, only about 20% of waste wood currently is recycled in Germany.

(Life cycle) assessment Pro: Beautiful look and feel and a positive image.  Wood and bamboo (responsibly sourced) are renewable resources and offset CO2. Cons: Only limited use for cosmetics packaging. Wood is becoming increasingly expensive and scarce, with the inherent problem of monoculture cultivation. With end consumer return rates of waste wood to the recycling system still being so low, the original ecological advantages are negated. Euro pallets, fruit crates, chipboard baskets etc. in the food sector, made of untreated category A I wood are more sustainable - and so are polymers based on wood fibres such as cellulose and lignin, for example from wood chips, sawdust and waste wood leftovers. However, these packaging materials are considered plastics.

Sources: Federal Environment Agency Germany, Federal Office for the Environment Switzerland, Deutsche Handwerkszeitung, Federal Association of Consumer Centres

You can also download the key facts about all materials here: