A Sweeter Choice: synthetic perfumes, while unpopular,
are better for the environment
This
article really caught my attention because it challenges my own thoughts on
greener products. I always used to think that using the all-natural choice would
be better for the environment, but after reading his article I realize that
there is a lot more to consider.
A
woman named Fanny Rakotoarivelo works as a biologist in Madagascar.
One of her jobs is to extract scents from flowers using a tool called a “headspace”
that fills a bag with scented air. This scented air is then flown across the
world to a company called Symrise in Germany. Here, scientists work to remake
the scent that is sent to them.
Conservation organizations have
studied this mechanism of making perfume or “nature in a bottle” and have
decided that it is much more environmentally friendly than tapping the plants themselves.
This topic gets even more
complicated when vanilla is added into the equation. Scientists were able to
recreate the scent in 1874 called vanillin. Vanilla is considered to be the “black
gold” of Madagascar because, as you have read from other people’s reviews of
other articles, Madagascar supplies half of the world’s vanilla flavor and fragrance.
Symrise buys its vanilla from
partner farms that are domestically owned. Something I found very shocking was
how labor intensive vanilla is. The article claims that, “About 1kg (2.2lbs) of vanilla requires extraction from 500kg
(1,102lbs) of vanilla pods and hand pollination of approximately 40,000 flowers
by workers wielding needles – most often women who are paid per stamen.”
Because
there have been many issues in the vanilla market, perfumers are searching for
plants in Madagascar that smell good and have the potential to be grown on a
wider or even global scale.
Although
there has been a move towards using other plants, there has also been a move
towards using cheap synthetic smells. This move is not only because synthetics
are cheap and easy to make, but also because they are more ecologically sound
and are better for people who have allergies.
One
example of this is the use of sandalwood. Using this in its natural form is
destroying forests in India, which is why many companies exclusively use the
synthetic form.
Natural
materials are still a vital industry, and one of the issues in the market for
synthetic perfumes is that they are less popular because more people are moving
towards trying to use all natural products. Education is something that could
help a lot of people better understand how to lead a greener life when it comes
to perfumes and other similar materials.
Here is the link! http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/may/23/perfume-synthetic-sustainability-vanilla-madagascar
- Jo
Langner
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