The quest to find the best bronzer, illuminator or moisturiser is an ongoing one. At the rate beauty products come onto the market, and given the sudden uptick of influencer-inspired collaborations, getting attached to just one product seems to admit defeat. It’s submitting yourself to a life of FOMO when it comes to any unboxing of a new product. But if there is one downside to a lifestyle devoted to beauty and skincare, it’s having bathroom cabinets overflowing with products, some used and others barely touched. Marie Kondo might suggest throwing those that don’t spark joy out, but the impact of doing so on the environment is enough to see you hoard those items for life.
Thankfully, in celebration of Earth Day two of Australia’s biggest retailers have announced that you can now recycle your used beauty product at MECCA and David Jones stores, thanks to a partnership with TerraCycle, which specialises in hard-to-recycle items.
The announcement comes after a TerraCycle trial in a select handful of MECCA stores that began back in October of 2019. If there was any doubt as to just how useful such an innovation would be, the trial only proved that there is a growing demand amongst consumers to live ethically, and with an environmental focus. Since the trial started, the beauty retailer has collected a total of 1,024kg of beauty waste with an estimated 10,240 empty beauty containers diverted from landfill during the 14-month trial.
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From April 27, uni’ll now be able to drop your empty beauty products off at labelled bins or you can pass them onto a team member at a registered MECCA, Mecca Cosmetica and Mecca Maxima store across Australia and New Zealand. Gone are the days of throwing away well-loved and used bottles, pots, tubes and palettes with little afterthought for where they go in terms of landfill. Now, we can turn a conscious eye to their disposal.
Similarly, David Jones has also launched a recycling program with TerraCycle, called BeautyCycle which launched nationally in stores on April 22. The recycling boxes are stationed in David Jones stores, with the following materials able to be recycled: soft plastic, rigid plastic and pumps, glass bottles, jars and pots, masks and packaging as well as makeup products including foundation bottles, lipsticks, eyeshadows, compacts and mascaras. Once collected, the products will be sorted, shredded, melted down and turned into plastic pellets that can be used as a substitute to virgin plastics in order to make new items.
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In a press release, Rachel Duffy-Packer, general manager of beauty at David Jones, said: “As a community, we are acutely aware of the fragility of our planet and this is increasingly playing a role in influencing our shopping habits and what we expect from the brands that we choose to support.”
“Our customers have responded well to our Mindfully Made shoppable edit online. We can see their values driving their shopping behaviour, and their desire to do more. Our partnership with TerraCycle for our BeautyCycle program will ultimately help to break the cycle of waste in the beauty industry as together we strive to contribute to a more environmentally conscious future.”
As climate change continues to be the greatest threat to our species, these innovative ways to reduce our environmental footprint are greatly appreciated. It might be a small step forward, but at least it’s in the right direction.
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