Environmental claims in the beauty industry have proliferated to the point where they have become almost meaningless. Carbon neutral. Eco-conscious. Sustainably sourced. Green. Natural. Clean. The language is everywhere. The specificity behind it is often nowhere.
Planting a tree is the most common environmental gesture in the category. It is visible, photogenic and emotionally appealing. It is also largely disconnected from the actual environmental harm a personal care brand causes — which is primarily plastic packaging.
SADHEV is certified Plastic Positive by The Disposal Company. This is a specific, verified, monthly certification with a defined mechanism. It is not a label. It is a programme. And the entire cost of it is carried by SADHEV — not passed on to consumers at checkout, not added as an optional contribution at the end of a purchase. SADHEV pays for it. Every month. In full.
Understanding how it works is the only way to assess whether it means anything.
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“The question to ask of any environmental claim is not what it sounds like. It is what it actually does.” |
Plastic Neutral vs Plastic Positive — The Difference Matters
The Disposal Company awards two certification levels: Plastic Neutral and Plastic Positive. The distinction is important because they represent genuinely different levels of commitment.
A brand that is Plastic Neutral has paid for the collection and recycling of exactly as much plastic as it has consumed through its sales. The environmental ledger is balanced. What goes in is matched by what is taken out.
A brand that is Plastic Positive has paid for the collection and recycling of more plastic than it has consumed. The ledger is positive. More plastic is removed from the environment than the brand has added to it.
SADHEV is certified Plastic Positive. Every month, SADHEV pays The Disposal Company for 5% more plastic than its actual consumption from sales. That 5% excess is what moves the certification from neutral to positive — and what ensures that SADHEV’s operations result in a net reduction of plastic in the environment, not merely an offset.
How the Calculation Actually Works — Month by Month
The mechanism is precise. It begins with sales data.
Every month, SADHEV calculates the plastic component in every unit sold — accounting for the type of plastic used in each product’s packaging and the total volume of units shipped. This produces a specific figure: the total kilograms of plastic that SADHEV has introduced into circulation through that month’s sales.
That figure, plus 5%, is submitted to The Disposal Company along with a payment calculated per kilogram of plastic. The Disposal Company then uses that payment to fund the collection of the equivalent weight of plastic from across India — working through networks of rag pickers who gather discarded plastic from streets, communities and collection points around the country.
The plastic collected is not simply disposed of. It is sent to certified recyclers who convert it into secondary products — furniture, toys, construction materials — giving it a second life rather than a landfill destination.
The result is a verified, audited, monthly chain: SADHEV calculates its plastic footprint, pays for more than it consumed, and The Disposal Company ensures that more plastic is collected and recycled than SADHEV created that month.
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“Sustainability that cannot be traced is not sustainability. It is storytelling.” |
SADHEV Carries This Cost. You Do Not.
There is a practice that has become common across the beauty and wellness industry: asking consumers to fund environmental programmes at the point of purchase. A small addition at checkout. An optional contribution to offset shipping. A prompt to ‘round up’ for a sustainability cause.
These mechanisms shift the cost of a brand’s environmental accountability onto the consumer. The brand benefits from the association with sustainability. The consumer pays for it.
SADHEV does not do this. The Plastic Positive programme is funded entirely by SADHEV. There is no checkout contribution. No optional add-on. No consumer prompt. The cost of removing more plastic from the environment than SADHEV consumes is built into how SADHEV operates — as a brand cost, not a consumer cost.
This is not a minor distinction. It is the difference between a brand that has made sustainability its own financial commitment and one that has made it the consumer’s financial contribution while taking the reputational credit.
Why This Is Different From Planting a Tree
Tree planting has genuine environmental value. Reforestation matters, carbon sequestration matters, and SADHEV plants a tree with every purchase as a separate commitment to biodiversity.
But a tree planted in response to plastic packaging does not remove the plastic from the environment. It does not intercept the packaging before it reaches a landfill or a waterway. It does not fund the rag picker who collects discarded bottles from a roadside. It offsets carbon — which addresses a different problem entirely.
SADHEV’s primary environmental accountability mechanism is the Plastic Positive programme precisely because it directly addresses the specific harm that a personal care brand’s packaging causes. The problem is plastic. The response is a verified programme that removes more plastic than is created. That is alignment between the harm and the remedy.
Every brand should be asked: what are you doing about the plastic you are putting into the world? A tree is not an answer to that question. A monthly, verified, brand-funded programme that collects and recycles more plastic than you consume is.
What The Disposal Company Is
The Disposal Company is an authorised certification body that manages Plastic Positive and Plastic Neutral programmes for brands across India. It operates the collection infrastructure, manages rag picker networks, verifies recycling outcomes and issues certification based on audited monthly data.
The certification is not self-reported. SADHEV cannot simply declare itself Plastic Positive. The calculation is submitted, the payment is made, the collection is executed and verified, and the certification is issued on the basis of that evidence. Every month.
This is what accountability looks like when it is designed to be real rather than to be seen.
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“When you choose SADHEV, the environmental commitment has already been made — by us, not asked of you.” |
SADHEV. Luxury Ayurvedic Care. Ayurveda in our bloodline. Plastic Positive certified by The Disposal Company.
— Written by SADHEV Ayurvedic Experts, rooted in a 200-year vaidyar lineage.
