British department store John Lewis has started a new recycling trial in collaboration with TerraCycle and is offering consumers £5 off cosmetic products in return for trading in their old beauty items.

In a bid to combat the ongoing problem with non-recyclable cosmetic waste, the program is being offered to select loyalty card members, with over half a million people having been invited to take part.

The month-long trial will take place across 36 stores, with Martyn White, Senior Sustainability Manager at John Lewis & Partners, stating, “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.”

Laure Cucuron, General Manager for TerraCycle Europe, continued, “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.”