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Why There’s No Silver Bullet for Beauty Brands That Want To Be Sustainable
Andrea Clemett
Andrea Clemett works with dot.LA's social production team. A Los Angeles native, Andrea previously worked as a staff writer for the San Clemente Times where she focused on new businesses and green issues. When she's not chasing stories, she can be found chasing swells along the California coast.
It's no coincidence wellness brands often build momentum on the West Coast. The combination of pristine coastlines and the city breeds an infectious admiration for the environment and an ecosystem for sustainable businesses to thrive.
The irony, of course, is that the beauty industry generates 120 billion units of packaging every year globally—most of which are not truly recyclable. But last year, California toughened the state's recycling system by cracking down on plastic pollution and requiring businesses to recycle at least 30% of packaging by 2028.
That presents a major obstacle for the beauty industry where most products — lipsticks, lotions, eyeshadow cases and plastic tubes — typically drop through the screen in a municipal recycling facility and end up in landfills and the ocean, says Wende Zomnir, co-founder of Caliray, a Newport Beach-based personal care startup.
In other words, the developing trend of curbside recycling infrastructure, where consumers return their empty containers back to the store, has yet to address its inability to process smaller materials. And the waste missed in these facilities contributes to over 40 million tons of garbage generated by Californians annually.
"We're exploring all kinds of options in terms of sustainable materials, and when we find what we like, we roll with it. And we'll try something else next time because all of this stuff is so new," Zomnir told dot. L.A. "The goal is to get this brand to a size where we're starting to make sustainability a real part of the conversation because people say they care about it. But until it's like front and center and a thing, you're not going to get momentum from other brands. There's just not going to be the pressure."
Although some of Caliray’s products cannot be recycled curbside due to their small size, they are eligible for processing through a third-party packaging collection program called PACT Collective based in San Francisco. The nonprofit organization accepts hard-to-recycle items produced by the beauty industry.
The PACT facility documents and sorts each container for secondary use of the material, and what’s left over, gets incinerated. The company acknowledges its eventual goal to phase out reliance on specialty programs and develop new methods for curbside packaging or reuse.
PACT has a handful of drop-off receptacles with Los Angeles partners, mail-back programs with participating members or consumers can ship directly to the company by paying $8 for a return envelope.
Jenna Dover, the co-founder of Caliray, describes herself as a design junkie who intentionally creates products that will be recycled or downsized. Through Caliray’s website, consumers can buy a prepaid shipping label and mail their empty beauty containers to PACT, she adds.
But even as third-party vendors have gained traction with industry professionals, consumers are still in the education stage of understanding the complexities of packaging materials and beauty waste, Zomnir says. Though she anticipates waste will get to a tipping point where consumers get into the routine of sending away their beauty packaging, they’re not there yet.
To that end, Victor Casale, co-founder and president of PACT Collective says that brands are beginning to look at sustainability downstream of the product's end cycle rather than focusing on the upstream of development like natural sourcing, ingredients toxicity, and the absence of child labor or animal testing, Casale says.
“My personal feeling is we should not be competing on sustainability. We should be sharing systems on sustainability initiatives,” Casale adds. “We have found at PACT that our program is best suited for startups and indie brands because they generally can't afford expertise or access to design and material information.”
While more prominent brands are also tuning into sustainable practices, Casale says, the process takes longer to onboard due to the global legacy of policies and systems. Change may take longer than a company creating a sustainable approach from its infancy.
“When brands reach out to us, we give them a ton of information on what can be recycled,” Casale says. “We purposely made it so indie brands can be members and learn because they're the future companies that are going to be the big, multinationals in the future. And we want to make sure that they get started off on the right foot.”
That said, last year personal care and beauty retail giant Sephora piloted a partnership with PACT called 'Beauty (Re)Purposed' in 23 Sephora locations in the U.S. geared for consumers to bring in their empty containers. Other veteran Southern California beauty brands like female-founded Ilia and Prima have also pledged to provide a mailback recycling program through PACT. Zomnir says, however, that Sephora still has yet to announce its future plans with PACT. But if it does, she anticipates the partnership will make a huge impact to move the needle.
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Andrea Clemett
Andrea Clemett works with dot.LA's social production team. A Los Angeles native, Andrea previously worked as a staff writer for the San Clemente Times where she focused on new businesses and green issues. When she's not chasing stories, she can be found chasing swells along the California coast.
AirMap Will Help The FAA Design Its New Drone Tracking System
04:43 PM | May 06, 2020
Santa Monica-based drone operations company AirMap is among eight companies selected to help the Federal Aviation Administration establish technical requirements for Remote ID, a protocol that drones will be required to follow for broadcasting identification and location data while in flight.
The other companies include Airbus, Amazon, T-Mobile, Intel, OneSky, Skyward and Alphabet's drone subsidiary, Wing.
"The FAA will be able to advance the safe integration of drones into our nation's airspace from these technology companies' knowledge and expertise on remote identification," Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said today in a news release.
Today's announcement comes months after the FAA put out a set of draft regulations and a request for information relating to Remote ID.
Remote ID would require drone manufacturers to make their products capable of sending out ID codes and location data during operation in national airspace. The rules would apply to all drones heavier than 8.8 ounces, and manufacturers would have to comply two years after the regulations take effect. Drone operators would have three years to phase out non-complying devices.
Drones without the Remote ID system could be flown only within special FAA-designated zones — usually the same sorts of places where hobbyists fly model airplanes.
Remote ID system proposed for drones in U.S. airspacewww.youtube.com
The eight companies named today will advise the FAA on the technical standards and radio frequencies that would support the Remote ID system. Those specifications will be announced when the FAA publishes its final rule on Remote ID. Then the FAA would begin accepting applications for entities to become Remote ID suppliers.
Assuming the process develops as the FAA envisions, Remote ID would become a fact of life for drone operation — and for enforcement of the rules governing drone operation. Nearly 1.5 million drones and 160,000 remote pilots are now registered with the FAA, and analysts say Remote ID could turn into a market generating $1.5 billion a year by 2029.
Seattle-based Amazon and Wing are already well-known for their work on drones designed for package delivery. Airbus has its own delivery-drone program known as Skyways. Intel, meanwhile, has been building drones optimized for remote monitoring. Several FAA-approved pilot projects are testing Intel's drones as well as Intel's Bluetooth-enabled identification system, known as Open Drone ID.
AirMap, OneSky (a business unit of Analytical Graphics Inc.) and Skyward (a Verizon subsidiary) are working on traffic management systems that are optimized to keep track of drone operations.
T-Mobile has been providing the connectivity for at least three pilot projects involving drones, and is looking to expand its involvement in the drone industry with the rise of 5G networks.
Not everyone is happy with the FAA's proposed plan for Remote ID: DJI, one of the world's largest drone manufacturers, sounded off about its objections in a January blog posting.
"DJI wants governments to require Remote ID for drones, but the FAA has proposed a complex, expensive and intrusive system that would make it harder to use drones in America, and that jeopardizes the success of the Remote ID initiative," said Brendan Schulman, DJI's vice president of policy and legal affairs. "Instead, we support a simpler, easier, and free version of Remote ID that doesn't need a cellular connection or a service subscription."
Will the FAA's new technology partners come up with a different plan, or stick with the system as proposed? Stay tuned.
This story first appeared on GeekWire.
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Alan Boyle, GeekWire
GeekWire contributing editor Alan Boyle is an award-winning science writer and veteran space reporter. Formerly of NBCNews.com, he is the author of "The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference." Follow him via CosmicLog.com, on Twitter @b0yle, and on Facebook and MeWe.
Tinder, Starlink, and Apple’s New Studio: This Week in LA
10:27 AM | July 04, 2025
🔦 Spotlight
Happy Independence Day, Los Angeles! 🇺🇸
While you're celebrating freedom, here are some electrifying updates lighting up LA’s tech, satellite, and music scenes:
🔥 Tinder mandates Face Recognition in California
Image Source: Tinder
Tinder is now requiring all new users in California to complete a biometric face check, a brief video selfie processed via FaceTec, to verify profiles are genuine. The video is deleted post-verification, though an encrypted face map remains while the account is active. This West Hollywood based move could redefine trust, safety, and privacy in mainstream consumer apps.
🌐 Starlink clears hurdle to launch in India
Elon Musk’s SpaceX backed Starlink has cleared most regulatory and licensing hurdles with India’s Department of Telecommunications, marking a key step toward launching satellite broadband in one of the world’s fastest growing markets. Final approvals from the national space regulator are pending, and services, expected to deliver high speed connectivity to underserved regions, could launch in the coming months. This is a major milestone for Starlink’s global expansion.
🎧 Apple Music opens Culver City creative hub
Image Source: Apple
Apple Music is celebrating its anniversary by launching a brand new 15,000 square foot, three story studio in Culver City. The facility, featuring a 4,000 square foot soundstage, spatial audio suites, podcast booths, and more, is designed by Eric Owen Moss and slated to open mid August. It solidifies LA’s reputation as a creative powerhouse and reaffirms Apple’s commitment to investing in and nurturing our city's cultural ecosystem.
From dating apps to deep space to sound stages, LA isn’t just watching the future unfold, we’re building it.
Here’s to independence, imagination, and everything this city dares to launch next. Happy Fourth, Los Angeles.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- Castelion has raised a $350M Series B round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners alongside Altimeter Capital to scale its hypersonic missile production capabilities. The El Segundo-based defense startup plans to use the funds to expand manufacturing, accelerate testing through its SpaceX-inspired rapid development model, and position itself as a cost-effective supplier of hypersonic weapons to the U.S. military and its allies. - learn more
- Earth Sama, a Calabasas, California–based climate-tech platform that helps rural farming and Indigenous communities generate and manage carbon credits, secured investment from Omtse Ventures. The funding will support the rollout of Earth Sama’s blockchain-powered field app, climate-creator platform, and smart-contract tools to scale community-led carbon credit projects globally under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 framework. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Plassa Capital participated in Metafide’s $3.275M funding round. Miami based Metafide, the creator of SURGE, a gamified trading platform that combines AI neural networks and human insight, will use the funds to scale and launch SURGE into the market. - learn more
- BOLD Capital Partners participated as a founding investor in Syntis Bio’s $33M Series A round, with an additional $5M in NIH grants. The Boston-based biotech is developing oral therapies for obesity and rare diseases, and the funding will help advance its SYNT platform, moving its lead obesity treatment, SYNT-101, into Phase 1 trials and supporting development of SYNT-202 for homocystinuria. - learn more
- BAM Ventures participated in Cred’s $15M seed round for its predictive intelligence startup. San Francisco based Cred uses AI to unify company data with real time market signals and deliver actionable insights for sales and operations. The funding, led by defy.vc, will be used to scale Cred’s platform, expand its customer base, and grow team and product capabilities. - learn more
- BOLD Capital Partners participated in Gallant’s $18M Series B round to advance its ready-to-use stem cell therapies for pets. The funding, led by Digitalis Ventures with additional support from NovaQuest Capital, will help Gallant bring its off-the-shelf regenerative treatments to market. - learn more
- Rebel Fund joined the seed round for Rocketable, contributing to the $6.5M raised to build a portfolio of fully automated SaaS companies. San Francisco-based Rocketable, backed by True Ventures and others, uses AI agents to operate acquired software products, and Rebel’s support will help scale both the platform and acquisitions. - learn more
LA Exits
- Leasepath, a cloud-first provider of equipment lease and loan management software, has been acquired by Solifi to enhance its mid-market offerings. The deal allows Solifi to expand Leasepath’s Microsoft Dynamics-based platform into new global markets while keeping Leasepath’s team and leadership in place. - learn more
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