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The British Beauty Council’s Sustainable Beauty Coalition has launched ‘The Great British Beauty Clean Up’, with support from more than 50 retailers, brands and industry professionals, including Boots, John Lewis, Tesco, L’Oréal, Cult Beauty, LOOKFANTASTIC, ELEMIS and L’Occitane. 

Beauty’s first cross-industry waste management campaign aims to ensure that beauty lovers are fully educated on the ways to manage their empty packaging.  

The British Beauty Council is updating its interactive recycling map which highlights the various recycling programmes offered by UK beauty businesses where consumers can drop off their ‘hard to recycle’ packaging.  

Beauty shoppers are encouraged to drop off empty products including packaging that is: too small such as travel minis, samples and mascaras; made of composite materials such as makeup palettes, compacts and lipsticks; and made from non-recyclable materials, including toothpaste tubes and lotion pumps.  

Boots is supporting the campaign with the introduction of its Recycle at Boots scheme which is available in over 800 stores across the UK and has already garnered 300,000 registered users. Customers will be offered 500 Boots Advantage Card points, worth £5, for every five items deposited, when they also spend £10 in store.  

Meanwhile, John Lewis is also encouraging shoppers to use its BeautyCycle scheme and users will be able to claim a reward to spend on B-Corp certified products from beauty brands including Medik8, ELEMIS and more.  

L’Oréal, which heads up the Maybelline recycling programme found in over 1,500 UK stores, is also spotlighting its recycling points on the British Beauty Council’s map which can be found in Sainsbury’s, Superdrug and Tesco stores.  

The launch follows research which uncovered that 86% of plastic beauty packaging is not recycled and of all packaging, only 14% of empties make it to a recycling plant, with only 9% actually recycled.  

Furthermore, 2023 research found that nearly 80% of consumers view sustainability as important when making purchasing decisions but only 23.4% used refillable skincare products.  

The Great British Beauty Clean Up 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).  

Head to the British Beauty Council’s interactive recycling map to find out more at https://britishbeautycouncil.com/recycling-points/.