A clean-up initiative led by L’Oréal, Tesco, Boots, L’Occitane, John Lewis, and other Sustainable Beauty Coalition members seeks to educate consumers on the appropriate ways to recycle empty packaging, guide them to local recycling schemes, and promote reuse and refill solutions.
According to research from the British Beauty Council, 86% of plastic packaging for beauty products is not recycled. Only 14% is thought to reach a recycling plant, while only 9% is believed to be recycled.
Meanwhile, data collected by bareLUXE in 2023 suggests that only 23.4% of consumers have embraced refillable skincare products, despite 79.3% claiming to factor sustainability into their purchasing decisions.
In response, the Sustainable Beauty Coalition will run The Great British Beauty Clean Up – a ‘first-of-its-kind’ collaborative campaign – throughout March. Featuring over 50 retailers, brands (both brick-and-mortar and online), and industry professionals, the initiative aims to uplift more conscious consumption via reuse and refill, as well as educate consumers on which packaging can and cannot be recycled at home.
As part of the campaign, consumers are encouraged to collect packaging that is currently incompatible with home recycling – packs that are too small, including samples, mascaras, and travel minis; made of composite materials, such as palettes, compacts, and lipsticks; and/or made from non-recyclable materials, which encompasses toothpaste tubes, lotion pumps, and more.
They can then use the British Beauty Council’s recently revamped interactive recycling map to locate drop-off points for their ‘hard to recycle’ beauty packaging.
Boots is uplifting its Recycle at Boots scheme. Said to be available in over 800 store locations with over 330,000 registered users to date, it is described as the ‘most generous’ recycling scheme in the industry; it offers 500 Boots Advantage Card Points, the equivalent of £5 for every five items deposited, when the consumer also spends £10 in-store.
Skincare brand ELEMIS will offer a new take-back scheme, including a new customer loyalty initiative, at its No. 23 Monmouth Street and The House of ELEMIS locations in London. The campaign will be advertised to consumers via in-store communications and across digital channels.
Similarly, John Lewis’ BeautyCycle scheme offers consumers a reward to spend on B-Corp-certified beauty products like Medik8, ELEMIS, and more.
The Hut Group, which owns Cult Beauty and LOOKFANTASTIC, will underline its recycle:me programme. This involves a network of 14,000 drop-off locations and a Royal Mail doorstep collection service, as well as rewards for consumer participation.
L’Oréal will also direct consumers to one of the recycling points under its Maybelline recycling programme, which is held in over 1,500 Sainsbury’s, Superdrug, or Tesco stores in the UK. Local recycling points can be found through the British Beauty Council’s interactive recycling map.
Brands and businesses will activate in line with key dates throughout March, including Waste Week (3rd – 9th March), Global Recycling Day (18th March), and the United Nations International Day of Zero Waste (30th March).
The development comes after L’Oréal Groupe, Maybelline New York, and other collaborators helped Closed Loop Partners recover small-format packaging materials from materials recovery facilities and glass recycling plants. The report brings together over two years of market research and recycling tests, and claims that existing technologies can be adapted to recycle smaller packaging, including beauty packs.
Another example of waste reduction efforts in the beauty sector involved Reposit, City to Sea, M&S, and Ecover expanding their pre-filled returnable packaging scheme to ARRAN Sense of Scotland and Mama Bamboo’s beauty and personal care products. This responded to research suggesting that 45% of consumers have not adopted reusable packaging due to a lack of availability.
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