John Lewis, in partnership with TerraCycle, will trial the beauty recycling scheme for a month in the 36 stores that have a full line of beauty products
When people on John Lewis' membership programme return their empty beauty products, they will be able to get £5 off any beauty item in the store (Credit: John Lewis & Partners)
British department store chain John Lewis has launched a trial for recycling beauty products.
The new BeautyCycle scheme has been created alongside US recycling company TerraCycle in an effort to increase the reuse of product packaging in the beauty market.
The scheme will allow the half a million people signed up to the My John Lewis loyalty programme to return empty beauty product packaging from any brand into one of its locations in return for a £5 discount on beauty items.
John Lewis & Partners senior sustainability manager Martyn White said: “Our customers are becoming more mindful about what they buy and what happens to products once they’ve reached the end of their first life.
“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.
“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.”
Th month-long trial period began on 14 June and will be featured in all 36 John Lewis shops featuring a full line of beauty products.
The announcement comes in the same month that Waitrose, a subsidiarity of John Lewis & Partners, started trialling packaging-free food for some dried and frozen items at its Botley Road shop in Oxford.
What will TerraCycle do with the recycled beauty products from John Lewis?
Once these items have been returned, they will be recycled by TerraCycle.
Each item will be taken by the company and separated into three sections – metals, fibres and plastics.
Each component will be either recycled, composted or turned into plastic pellets, with these being used to create storage containers, plastic lumber or outdoor furniture.
The trial’s purpose is to understand customer demand for beauty recycling, with a wider ambition to make the scheme permanent if successful.
Laure Cucuron, TerraCycle Europe’s general manager, said: “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 its customers the chance to recycle empty beauty products and packaging in John Lewis stores across the UK.”
The scheme will accept a range of packaged products, including shampoo bottles and caps, lotion bottles, jars, lip gloss and mascara tubes, with the only items not accepted being aerosol cans, nail varnish and fragrance bottles, due to their potential flammability.
John Lewis beauty products recycling initiative is a ‘step in the right direction’
Emma Priestland, plastics campaigner at environmental charity Friends of the Earth, said the initiative is a step in the right direction.
“But more fundamental changes are needed to address the beauty industry’s contribution to plastic pollution and the UK’s enormous waste mountain,” she added.
“Most brands appear to prioritise attractiveness of their packaging over sustainability.
“This needs to change.
“Recycling is better than throwing stuff away, but waste reduction and re-use is better still.
“So this means we need far more reusable packaging – with the make-up sold as refills.”