John Lewis & Partners team up with TerraCycle to launch BeautyCycle

John Lewis & Partners is collaborating with TerraCycle to launch BeautyCycle, a beauty recycling trial, which offers members of its my John Lewis loyalty programme the chance to recycle empty makeup and skincare beauty products from any brand.

The month-long trial begins on 14 June and all John Lewis shops with full-line beauty services will take part using TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box solution.

TerraCycle takes empty beauty packages and separates them into metals, fibres and plastics. Each component part is then recycled, composted or in the case of plastics, made into pellets which can be moulded into new products like storage containers, plastic lumber and 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.

The scheme accepts all types of packaging, from shampoo bottles and caps to lotion bottles and jars, lip gloss and mascara tubes.

The only packaging not accepted by the scheme is aerosol cans, nail varnish bottles and fragrance bottles, due to their potential flammability.

The beauty recycling trial is part of John Lewis’ Better Way of Doing Business.

Martyn White, Senior Sustainability Manager at John Lewis & Partners, said: “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.”