In an exclusive interaction with The Packman, Nat Habit’s co-founder and CEO Swagatika Das shares key insights from the brand’s Sustainability Impact Report, highlighting its shift to high-quality rPET and the complete elimination of plastic bubble wrap. She explains how the company navigated supply-chain hurdles, maintained product safety, and removed 35 tonnes of plastic without affecting breakage rates. With 72% of its PET bottles now made from recycled content, Nat Habit is steering toward compostable formats and stronger circularity through certified recycling partners.

Mahan Hazarika: Nat Habit has shifted a major part of its packaging to rPET. What prompted this move, and what challenges did you face during the transition?

Swagatika Das: Our move to rPET came from a simple belief: clean beauty must also be responsible beauty. As our scale grew, we could no longer ignore the footprint of virgin plastic. PET was our largest material stream, so switching to recycled PET delivered the highest impact on circularity.

The biggest challenge was securing consistent, certified, high-quality rPET in India. Getting global-grade clarity and stability meant months of supplier assessments, trials, and design realignments. We also had to recalibrate machines, update supply chains, and absorb early cost differences until efficiencies settled.

Mahan Hazarika: With 72% of your PET bottles now made from recycled content, how do you ensure the same quality, safety, and performance as virgin PET?

Swagatika Das: Every rPET batch goes through strict quality, purity, and food-grade checks. We work only with certified recyclers who follow global standards. Each bottle is stability-tested with our formulations to ensure strength, chemical resistance, and shelf life match virgin PET.

Our natural, solvent-free formulations give us an added safety advantage, rPET interacts with gentler products, reducing risk across all categories.

Mahan Hazarika: You have eliminated plastic bubble wrap entirely. How did you redesign your protective packaging to maintain product safety in transit?

Swagatika Das: We shifted fully to engineered paper-based protective systems – layered cushioning, honeycomb wraps, and reinforced paper structures. These provide shock absorption at par with bubble wrap and are fully recyclable.

Every configuration was rigorously transit-tested for drops, courier handling, and weight differences. The shift removed 35 tonnes of plastic bubble wrap without any rise in breakage.

Mahan Hazarika: Sustainable packaging often increases cost. How do you balance eco-friendly materials with price competitiveness in the D2C beauty market?

Swagatika Das: Sustainable materials do cost more, but they build long-term trust and future-proof the brand. We balance costs by optimising packaging weight, eliminating excess layers, and using modular bottle designs to scale better. Our cold-processed manufacturing is resource-efficient, which offsets some packaging spend.

Customers today value responsible choices – sustainability directly supports preference, loyalty, and repeat rates, making the investment commercially sound.

Mahan Hazarika: The report highlights that 41% of your total plastic use is now recycled. What is your roadmap for increasing this percentage further?

Swagatika Das: As Nat Habit prepares for its next phase of growth, sustainability remains central to how it grows. The brand’s vision for the future includes increasing the proportion of recycled materials across all packaging formats; introducing biodegradable and compostable alternatives for pouches, sachets, and labels; expanding the use of paper-based and compostable packaging solutions for shipping and product protection; and strengthening end-of-life product solutions for a full-circle sustainability model.

Mahan Hazarika: You plan to introduce compostable sachets, pouches, and labels. Which product categories will adopt these first, and what limitations do you currently see?

Swagatika Das: We already use highly biodegradable materials, kraft paper for soaps (96% biodegradable) and 100% biodegradable outer packaging. Compostable sachets, pouches, and labels will first be adopted for sample and small-format products. The current limitations are durability, formulation compatibility, and scalability, which we are actively testing before wider rollout.

Mahan Hazarika: What key criteria do you use to evaluate new sustainable packaging materials before adopting them?

Swagatika Das: We evaluate material on compatibility with cold-processed products; end-of-life impact (recyclability, compostability, biodegradation); supply chain stability; cost-to-benefit over lifecycle; and carbon footprint improvement vs existing materials.

Mahan Hazarika: As you scale, how do you ensure consistent supply, quality, and certification of rPET in the Indian market?

Swagatika Das: We partner with multiple certified suppliers to avoid dependence on any single source. Every batch is validated for clarity, density, food-grade compliance, and contamination markers. With rPET adoption rising in India, supply consistency is improving, giving us greater stability as we scale.

Mahan Hazarika: Are you exploring any refill, reuse, or take-back models to build a closed-loop packaging system for Nat Habit?

Swagatika Das: Currently, we don’t offer a refill or customer take-back model. However, we do repurpose oils from RTO returns (hair and massage oils) to make candles, ensuring minimal product waste. For packaging recovery, we follow the standard EPR route, an authorised third-party collects and recycles post-consumer plastic from the market on our behalf. As we grow, we continue to evaluate practical circular solutions for the future.

Mahan Hazarika: Do you see packaging sustainability influencing your customers’ purchase decisions? How do you communicate these efforts to them?

Swagatika Das: Absolutely. Customers choosing natural beauty increasingly care about environmental impact too. While we haven’t spoken about packaging sustainability in depth before, this Sustainability Impact Report is our first step toward full transparency.

We’ll now integrate clear sustainability messaging across product pages, social content, and packaging, so customers see the real impact of their choices. As we communicate more openly, we expect stronger trust, higher loyalty, and more conscious buying.