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Marks and Spencer has announced a partnership with beauty recycling experts, HANDLE, to launch a ‘Beauty Takeback’ scheme in over 40 stores across the country.
This scheme will see hard to recycle beauty packaging materials and components that commonly end up in landfill to be recycled are turned into new packaging and products.
The retailer’s partnership and subsequent launch of this scheme comes as packaging is one of the biggest sustainability challenges facing the beauty industry, as 120 billion units of packaging are produced globally every year.
This is despite a recycling rate estimate range of 9% to 50% in the UK due to certain packaging types specific to beauty not being processed through the infrastructure available in mainstream recycling.
HANDLE works with retailers, brands and manufacturers to plug these gaps and seek better end of life options for beauty packaging such as lids, tubes and pumps that often fall out of mainstream municipal recycling.
From this month, M&S customers will be able to return any form of plastic or aluminium beauty packaging – from bottles and tubes to caps, pumps, and tubs – from any retailer, by dropping their used beauty packaging into dedicated boxes located within the store’s beauty section.
The initiative is estimated to collect over two tonnes of empty beauty packaging from participating, within the first 12 months.
To celebrate the launch of the scheme, until 5 July, Sparkes customers who recycle their beauty packaging will also receive 10% off beauty at M&S.
Carmel McQuaid, head of ESG at M&S, said: “We’re passionate about creating simple solutions that help our customers live lower carbon lives. Alongside our other schemes, including Shwopping and plastic takeback, it’s one of the many ways we’re driving the circular economy on our roadmap to net zero.”
Tom Murgatroyd, co-founder of Handle Recycling, added: “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with M&S, our mission is to reduce the environmental impact of beauty packaging and this partnership helps to elevate awareness and action toward this mission to the next level.”
