Retailers and brands including Boots, John Lewis, Tesco, L'Oréal, Cult Beauty,
LOOKFANTASTIC, ELEMIS and L'Occitane back beauty's first
cross-industry waste management campaign
LONDON, March 14,
2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sustainable Beauty Coalition
has launched a pioneering industry initiative to tackle beauty's
waste problem head on. This comes as British Beauty Council
research uncovers that 86% of plastic beauty packaging is not
recycled. Of all packaging, only 14% of empties makes it to a
recycling plant and ultimately only 9% is actually
recycled[1].
In addition, in 2023 research found that although 79.3% of
consumers view sustainability as important when making purchasing
decisions, only 23.4% currently use refillable skin care
products[2].
With support from leading high-street retailers including Boots,
John Lewis, Tesco and more, the
collective campaign is a first-of-its kind collaboration to reduce
beauty's impact.
The Great British Beauty Clean Up is dedicated to ensuring
beauty lovers are fully educated on the ways to manage their empty
packaging.
Not only will the brands and businesses be educating consumers
on the importance of refill and reuse for more conscious
consumption, there will also be a concerted industry-wide effort to
educate people on what they can and cannot recycle at home.
As part of this, the British Beauty Council is revamping its
interactive recycling map which pin-points the various recycling
programmes offered by UK beauty businesses, where consumers can
drop off their 'hard to recycle' packaging.
It is calling on beauty shoppers to collect all of their empties
which cannot be put in at-home recycling bins which include
packaging that's:
- Too small (travel minis, samples, mascaras, etc)
- Made of composite materials (make-up palettes, compacts,
lipsticks, etc)
- Made from non-recyclable materials (toothpaste tubes, lotion
pumps, etc)
With over 50 retailers, brands and businesses committed to
supporting the initiative, the programme is set to reach lovers of
both mass and indie brands whether they shop online or IRL.
High-street retailer Boots is supporting the campaign by
highlighting it's Recycle at Boots scheme, available in over 800
stores across the UK with over 330k
registered users already. Recycle at Boots is also the industry's
most generous recycling scheme, offering 500 Boots Advantage Card
Points, worth £5 for every five items deposited, when you also
spend £10 in store.
L'Oréal, which heads up the Maybelline recycling programme found
in over 1,500 UK stores, is spotlighting its recycling points on
the British Beauty Council's map which are found in Sainsbury's,
Superdrug and Tesco stores.
Consumers will also be able to head down to John Lewis stores to use its BeautyCycle scheme
and will be able to claim a reward to spend on B-Corp certified
beauty products including Medik8, ELEMIS and more.
What's more, British Skincare brand ELEMIS will be educating its
community on their recycling programme at their London locations; No.23 Monmouth Street and The House of ELEMIS with
in-store communications highlighting its take back scheme,
including a new customer loyalty initiative. ELEMIS will also
spotlight the campaign across their digital channels with extensive
support during the month and beyond.
Online, The Hut Group – owner of Cult Beauty and LOOKFANTASTIC –
will be spotlighting its 'recycle:me' programme under the
initiative. This enables recycling via a Royal Mail doorstep
collection service and network of 14,000 drop off locations and
rewards customers for doing so.
The programme is running throughout March with retailers, brands
and businesses activating to align with key dates including: Waste
Week (3rd–9th March), Global Recycling Day (18th
March) and the United Nations International Day of Zero
Waste (30th March).
You can find out more and use the British Beauty Council's
interactive recycling map here:
https://britishbeautycouncil.com/recycling-points/
[1] Planet Positive Beauty Guide,
British Beauty Council, 2020
[2] bareLUXE, 2023
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