L’Oreal Australia has stepped up its sustainability drive with the launch of a recycling system in collaboration with US company TerraCycle.

The service allows consumers to send their empty personal care bottles back via post to a recycling system, with users simply downloading a shipping label from the TerraCycle website and sending it back to the company via the Post Office.

With cosmetic packaging being notoriously difficult to recycle, CEO of TerraCycle Tom Szaky told The Huffington Post, that the two companies are ‘taking traditionally unrecyclable products and making them recyclable to divert as much waste as possible from landfill.’

He continued, “We’re able to recycle glass because it is valuable. But something like a mascara tube, because of its complex structure, actually costs more to collect and process than it’s worth. Consumers collect their empty beauty products at home and send them to TerraCycle to be recycled with L’Oréal Australia offsetting the economic costs involved.”

Christine Burke, Corporate Communications Director of L’Oréal Australia, followed up saying, “Sustainable development is integrated into L’Oréal’s long term strategy and we are committed to making a difference.”