Cosmetics retailer Lush’s UK & Ireland arm has launched a packaging return scheme.
The ‘Bring It Back’ initiative allows consumers to return any full-sized Lush plastic packaging to their local Lush shop to be recycled or reused. For each plastic Lush item brought in, customers will receive a 50p deposit to spend on their shopping in the store that day.
Returned packaging will be sent to the Greenhub, Lush’s UK recycling facilities, where packaging is processed and sent to the company’s partners to be remoulded into new black Lush pots or used as industry feedstock material.
Lush said the majority of plastic packaging it uses is from recycled and recyclable material, but it had concerns about domestic recycling rates. The packaging return scheme is an example of the retailer looking to take responsibility for the disposal of black plastic.
It joins Lush’s pre-existing fresh face mask scheme, which allows customers to bring back five items of Lush plastic packaging in exchange for a fresh mask. This initiative, it said, results in more than 500,000 pots returning to the Greenhub each year.
Lush also offers a Knot Swap scheme where customers can return their Lush labelled Knot Wraps – the retailer’s reusable alternative to traditional gift wrap – in exchange for 50% off another Knot Wrap of the same size.
Lush co-founder & product inventor, Rowena Bird, said: “We are the difference in the cosmetic industry, we have the ideas and the passion, it’s then about making those ideas a reality by getting everyone to join in.
“So spread the word, let’s put some positivity into plastic, after all it’s not plastic that’s the baddy, we’re the baddies when we don’t reduce, reuse, and recycle it. Don’t be a baddy, be a ‘Lushie’ and claim your 50p deposit!”
Rae Stanton-Smithson from Lush Earthcare, commented: “By moving towards a deposit-style scheme, whereby Lush customers know that they are ‘renting’ the packaging and can simply return it when they are finished, we keep the responsibility of waste-reduction and resource recycling as a company responsibility.
“All we need our customers to do is simply return their empties to us – we’ll take care of the rest.”
Read more about retail recycling schemes on Green Retail World
[Image credit: Lush]
