The ‘Great British Beauty Clean Up’ initiative will run throughout March to coincide with Waste Week (3rd - 9th March), Global Recycling Day (18th March) and the United Nations International Day of Zero Waste (30th March).
The Sustainable Beauty Coalition itself was formed by the British Beauty Council in 2020 to accelerate collaboration, knowledge and stronger collective efforts.
According to the British Beauty Council’s The Courage to Change Report, the beauty industry produces over 120bn units of packaging globally, much of which goes to landfill.
“In fact, the beauty industry accounts for a whopping 1/3 of all landfill waste and 70% of our industry’s plastic waste is not recycled,” it continued. “What’s more, research also shows that 56% of people do not recycle their bathroom products, contributing to the mounting waste crisis.”
The Great British Beauty Clean Up will work to better educate beauty shoppers on how to manage their empty packaging, on what can and cannot be recycled at home and the importance of refilling and reusing products.
A first-of-its kind collaboration
Many high-street retailers including Tesco, Boots and John Lewis have joined the collective campaign, which is said to be a first-of-its kind collaboration to reduce the beauty industry’s impact on the planet.
The British Beauty Council has improved its interactive recycling map to help people locate recycling programmes offered where people can dispose of ‘hard to recycle’ packaging.
It is also calling on beauty shoppers to collect empties that cannot be put in at-home recycling bins, including packaging that’s too small, made of composite materials, and made from non-recyclable materials.
80% of Brits hold on to almost-empty beauty products
New research from Uk health and beauty retailer Boots shows that most British people (80%) hold on to empty or ‘almost empty’ beauty or toiletry products in their bathrooms. Almost half of the beauty fans quizzed (48%) said they had at least three, one in four (25%) said they had five, and one in 10 (10%) had over seven. One in five (20%) will also hold onto these products for months at a time, said the UK health and beauty retailer.
The retailer’s research also shows that almost half of British people (48%) who don’t yet recycle aren’t sure what can be recycled and where. And two in five (40%) say clearer information would encourage them to recycle their health and beauty empties.
In response, Boots is now offering rewards through its Recycle at Boots scheme, which allows customers to unlock 500 Boots Advantage Card points (worth £5) for every five eligible empty health and beauty product deposited when they spend £10 in-store.
The campaign is available at 800 Boots stores nationwide and accepts hundreds of empty products customers might not even realise can be recycled – including mascara wands, wipe packaging, travel minis, serum tubes, toothbrushes, and more.
Head of ESG at Boots Candice Smith commented: “Many of us are guilty of holding on to products in the bathroom unnecessarily – either it’s the last bit of product that you can’t bear to throw out, you have an empty bottle you keep forgetting to put into the kitchen recycling bin, or you are holding on to items you don’t think you can recycle. This Spring we want to help by encouraging everyone to finish every drop of those forgotten products and recycle the empties at your local Boots. You can clear more space in your bathroom and get rewarded in the process – a spring clean win!”
Meanwhile L’Oréal Group, the parent company of Maybelline, is spotlighting its recycling points on the British Beauty Council’s map which are found in Sainsbury’s, Superdrug and Tesco stores.
The skin care brand ELEMIS will be educate its community on their recycling programme at their London locations and spotlight the campaign across their digital channels.
And The Hut Group, which owns Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty will spotlight its ‘recycle:me’ programme, which enables recycling via a Royal Mail doorstep collection service and network of 14,000 drop off locations. It also rewards customers that do this.
