John Lewis trials recycling scheme for beauty products

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 17, 2019

John Lewis & Partners has launched a recycling service for members of its loyalty programme at 36 shops across the UK.

The month-long trial will aim to understand customer demand for beauty recycling.

The department store has partnered with TerraCycle to launch the service, which will accept empty makeup and skincare beauty products from any brand. These will be separated into metals, fibres and plastics, and each component part will be recycled, composted or in the case of plastics, made into pellets which can be molded into new products like storage containers, plastic lumber and outdoor furniture.  

“Beauty products are notoriously hard to recycle which can make it hard for customers to know what to do with them, which often means they end up being thrown in the bin. One of our key aims is to make 'being sustainable' as easy as possible for customers, so it doesn't have to be a difficult choice,” said Martyn White, senior sustainability manager at John Lewis & Partners.

“The BeautyCycle trial will help us to do just that, enabling customers to shop and enjoy beauty products in a more sustainable way, ensuring the materials are re-used in the best way possible,” he added.

According to TerraCycle, the global cosmetics industry produces 120 billion units of packaging each year and very little of this packaging is accepted by local recycling programmes. That is because many products are designed to be squeezable, twistable and portable and often contain caps, labels and pumps which make them harder to recycle.

“Very few beauty products or beauty product packaging, outside of say plastic bottles, are accepted by most council kerbside recycling systems due to the complexity of the material. So we are delighted to be working with John Lewis & Partners to offer their customers the chance to recycle empty beauty products and packaging in John Lewis stores across the UK,” said Laure Cucuron, general manager for TerraCycle Europe.

Members of the John Lewis loyalty programme will be offered a voucher for £5 off a beauty purchase in store for taking part.