On March 3rd, the Sustainable Beauty Coalition 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.

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.

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).