The Perfume Shop has introduced new fragrance bottle recycling units to its UK stores to help its customers recycle their glass perfume bottles.
The retailer made the move on National Fragrance Week’s sustainability day (26 March 2023).
For five years, The Perfume Shop has offered fragrance bottle recycling collection in stores, but this recent move is part of efforts by the business to raise greater awareness of the scheme. In addition, for every bottle received, the retailer promises to give customers 15% off their next purchase and plant a tree as part of a reforestation initiative with the Eden Reforestation Projects organisation.
The Perfume Shop said it will also recycle any glass perfume bottles – they don’t have to have been bought through its channels.
All new fragrance bottle recycling units comes with a new design, and are being made more prominent in the stores.
Green Retail World interviewed The Perfume Shop managing director, Gill Smith, in November 2022.
She explained that having offered recycling in store for years, significant customer demand for these services has only recently materialised.
“People weren’t ready for it, but now it’s more prominent, it’s being talked about, and it’s become very visible,” she told this publication.
“We have changed our view – we’ve got to make it visible. What’s the point of doing it if we’re not shouting about it more? That’s one of the ways the business has changed.”
Many of the returned bottles are used in The Perfume Shop store refits, and Smith said each new store fitting includes a chandelier made from the would-be waste glass that has been collected from customers.
She revealed to Green Retail World at the time that all stores will eventually have a recycling unit built into the counters as opposed to being an add-on to the core point of sale – and that is what has now been rolled out across the UK.
[Image credit: The Perfume Shop]
