Lush Ireland and UK are set to launch Bring It Back – a new packaging returns scheme enabling customers to bring back any full-sized Lush plastic packaging to their local Lush shop to be recycled.
For each plastic Lush item returned, customers will receive a 50p (€0.57) deposit to spend on their Lush basket that day.
The returned packaging will then be sent to the Greenhub, Lush’s recycling hub, where packaging is processed and then sent to partners to be remoulded into new black Lush pots or used as industry feedstock material.
The Bring It Back scheme will join Lush’s existing fresh face mask scheme, which allows customers to bring back five items of Lush plastic packaging in exchange for a fresh mask. The company reports that this existing scheme sees over 500,000 pots come back to Lush’s Greenhub each year.
Lush also offers a Knot Swap scheme where customers can return their Lush labelled Knot Wraps (Lush’s reusable alternative to traditional gift wrap) in exchange for 50% off another Knot Wrap of the same size.
Commenting on the launch of the initiative, Rae Stanton-Smithson of Lush Earthcare said: “We are working hard to offer people the ultimate waste-free shopping experience. We continue to invent revolutionary naked products, unique packaging materials, work on reusable plastic packaging items, as well as looking into refilling options for the future. This recycling scheme is another step on our path to leaving the world Lusher than we found it.
“By moving towards a deposit-style scheme, whereby Lush customers know that they are ‘renting’ the packaging and can simply return it when they are finished, we keep the responsibility of waste-reduction and resource recycling as a company responsibility. All we need our customers to do is simply return their empties to us – we’ll take care of the rest.”
