Make-Up Recycling: Every High Street Beauty Brand Working Hard To Help You Recycle Your Empties

Maybelline changed the game for your mascara empties, launching the biggest make-up recycling scheme in the UK. Simply pay a visit to one of the 1,000 Tesco, Superdrug, Boots or Sainsbury's stores participating in the scheme to drop off your make-up from any brand. Yup, taking one for the team, Maybelline's recycle stations work for your entire beauty stash.

What You Can Recycle:

- Compacts and palettes, such as eyeshadows, powders & blushers.
- Mascaras including the plastic tube and wand.
- Eyeliners such as retractable plastic liners or liquid eye liners.
- Lip products such as plastic lip gloss tubes or bullet lipstick tubes.
- Plastic tubes and bottles such as foundation or concealer tubes.
- Other make-up packaging such as caps, pumps or trigger sprays.

What You Can't Recycle:

- Glass bottles and cardboard packaging can already be recycled by most local council recycling schemes.

- Unfortunately, we can’t accept make-up brushes or nail polish at this time.

- Aerosols aren’t accepted, however the good news is that in most parts of the UK, aerosol recycling is possible.

FIND YOUR NEAREST RECYCLING STATION

What's better than helping the planet via your beauty stash? Being rewarded for it at the same time. Skincare legends Kiehl's have relaunched their Recycle & Be Rewarded scheme in association with Terracycle which encourages customers to bring their Kiehl's empties to their local shop and pop them in the new recycling stations. The best bit? You can choose which charity you want to support with your recycling, with £1 for every kilo of packaging being donated. And it gets better. Get your hands on a loyalty card and every time you recycle products you'll earn discounts on the Kiehl's products you already love and use.

Bringing tech to the world of beauty product recycling is Boots. Launching their genius new Scan2Recycle app, Boots are encouraging customers to track not only how many products they've recycled, but also discover what their empties are transformed into once they're finished with them.

Simply pop down to your local Boots with your finished health, beauty and wellness products (whether they're stocked in Boots or not), drop them off at the recycle stations in store and receive 500 Advantage card points for your efforts.

What You Can't Recycle:

For health and safety reasons, Boots cannot accept the following items: aerosol cans, perfume bottles, nail polish bottles, hair dyes, brow and eyelash tints, safety razors and razor blades, disposable razors and razor heads, used PPE (disposable masks, gloves and visors), food packaging including crisps, medicine, vitamins and supplements blister packs and foils; any electrical items such as hairdryers and straighteners and any medical devices, electrical or not.

FIND YOUR NEAREST RECYCLING STATION

Hitting us with the first ever hair straightener recycling scheme is Cloud Nine. Committed to saving 1.5 million straighteners from going to landfill by 2022 (they've already recycled 50,000), Cloud Nine's Iron Recycling Service is free and seriously easy to use. Simply visit www.cloudninehair.com to download a free pre-paid postage label, then place your old straighteners in a secure package and drop it off at your nearest post office. Consider recycling your old hair straighteners easier than working out how to curl your hair without tongs.

With the mantra 'Return. Recycle. Repeat', The Body Shop are continuing their earth-conscious efforts that started way back in 1993 with founder Dame Anita Roddick. Since then the revolutionary scheme has been a pioneer of recycling beauty products on the great British high street, returning to its former glory in 2019. Partnering with Terracycle, The Body Shop have recycling bins in each store ready to receive your empty tubs and tubes. Once the bin fills up, Terracycle collects it and transforms your used up cleansing balm into everything from park benches to playgrounds.

FIND YOUR NEAREST STORE

Marking a major move towards sustainability in the haircare industry is beauty powerhouse L'Orèal who, among a wealth of other commitments to becoming more eco-friendly, are now making their Elvive range from 100 per cent recycled and recyclable plastic. The game-changing initiative will be rolled out across L'Orèal's other haircare ranges including Garnier and Maybelline, resulting in 18,000 tonnes of virgin plastic saved each year. Once you've finished your newly sustainable Elvive shampoo and conditioner, take them for a trip to Boots' recycling stations in store and close the loop.

Dedicated to keeping our oceans plastic-free, Neal's Yard have committed to making all of their plastic bottles 100 per cent recyclable by 2025 in line with the UK Plastics Pact. In the meantime, their non-plastic packaging can be easily recycled through your local recycling centres. When it comes to items like pumps and atomisers that are harder to recycle, Neal's Yard have got you covered. Just pay a visit to your nearest store and they'll recycle the awkward parts of your empty packaging for you.

GET MORE INFORMATION ON WHERE TO RECYCLE YOUR NEAL'S YARD PRODUCTS

FIND YOUR NEAREST RECYCLING CENTRE

Seeing sustainability as a holistic issue, haircare brand Champo pack their products in boxes made from 80 per cent recycled cardboard (that's fully recyclable), make their full-size shampoo and conditioner bottles from 100 per cent recyclable PET and offer a 'return to recycle' scheme for their bottle caps where the returned caps are washed and re-used.