For centuries, humanity has been drawn to scents and perfumes for their overwhelming aroma that gives a person a sense of elegance and splendor. Over time, perfumes have become an indispensable part of human life's basic necessities, leading factories to respond to the public's need for perfumes. A wave of perfume manufacturing has begun to sweep the global market.
But the question here is: What is perfume made of?
Perfumes are a complicated blend of chemical agents and natural oils that produce different scents like floral, fruity, woody, eastern and others with different concentrations.
During this report, “Green in Arabic” shows the harmful environmental practices resulting from the perfume industry, and how to take effective steps towards available environmental choices.
Despite the popularity of perfumes, research indicated many environmental harms that result from this massive wave of manufacturing perfumes and excessive use of it. These are:
1- The pollution of the Ozone layer: This pollution results from using harmful chemical compounds that spread through the air and negatively affect the ecosystem.
2- It negatively affects the aquatic environment: When you wash your clothes, that you put perfumes on, it may reach waterways and pollute seas, oceans and the whole marine life.
3- It is considered one of the air pollutants: The air loses its purity with the spread of these scents that contain chemical compounds like the volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
4- It causes consumption of energy and resources: The perfumes are extracted from flowers and plants. With the increased demand of perfumes in the market, these resources are getting exhausted.
5- It is considered one of the factors that cause carbon emissions, which makes it harmful to the atmosphere.
This is why there has been a call for sustainability and the establishment of basic practices to reduce our environmental footprint, according to a 2022 medical study published in the National Library of Medicine.
Clean Scents, Clean Future: Can Perfume Go Green?
1- Using natural degradable substances in manufacturing:
To move away from using harmful chemical substances that have a carbon footprint, and substitute it with natural organic matters from flowers, herbs and oils from plants.
2- Depending on sustainable agriculture to extract scents from plants:
To plant the plants specialized for perfumes in more sustainable ways to preserve the health of soil and water, and also to stay away from endangered plants to encourage biodiversity.
3- Producing perfumes with renewable energy:
Companies and factories should depend on renewable energy in manufacturing of perfumes like solar power and wind to reduce carbon footprint.
4 -Using environmentally friendly packaging methods:
To depend on recyclable packages like glass, stay away from non degradable plastics and reuse empty packages.
How to make perfumes at home
Organic perfumes have a low carbon footprint, long-lasting essential oils, and non-toxic formulas that are safe for everyday use. They can be made in the following way:
Ingredients for making perfume at home
To make a 50 ml bottle of perfume, you will need:
1- Select your appropriate essential oil.
2- Put 12 grams of it in the bottle.
3- Put one gram of the carrier oil.
4- Complete the rest of the bottle with alcohol.
To reduce the harmful footprint in perfumes industry, all elements that contribute to perfumes industry, like companies and factories, should cooperate to promote these practices, adopt more sustainable techniques in alternative fragrance uses, and educate consumers about environmentally safe options
