The British Beauty Council and its Sustainable Beauty Coalition officially launched the second annual Great British Beauty Clean Up on Monday 2 March, with a special event involving multiple retail brands at London Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner.
Standing near Marble Arch, representatives from Neal’s Yard Remedies, L’Occitane, Elemis, Neom Wellbeing, Scrummi, Boots, MyGroup, Philip Kingsley, and others gathered to make the case for abandoning “discard culture”.
This month, the beauty industry will be promoting more sustainable practices, packaging, and products across the UK, with a key focus on recycling, reuse and refill, and repurposing surplus stock.
Brands are being encouraged to donate surplus stock or discontinued lines to In Kind Direct, The Hygiene Bank, and Beauty Banks, instead of destroying them.
Speaking at the launch of the Great British Beauty Clean Up, Victoria Brownlie, chief of policy & sustainability at the British Beauty Council, said: “The 2026 Great British Beauty Clean Up is about reimagining waste completely.
“This isn’t just a campaign; it’s a blueprint for change that every organisation and individual across the Sustainable Beauty Coalition has worked tirelessly to build. Proving that when we unite, we build a better future.”
She added: “Whether it is educating consumers on ‘hard to recycles’, donating surplus stock to prevent landfill waste, offering consumers the opportunity to reuse and refill, or utilising organisations like MYGroup to turn compacts into construction materials, we are asking the industry to think more purposefully about closing the loop and reducing our industry’s waste impact.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the beauty industry produces 120 billion units of packaging each year – which is why the council describes the need for collective action to reduce waste as being of the utmost importance.
There are commercial reasons for focusing on this, too. Research from the council and UNiDAYS, based on a survey of 3,533 students in January 2026, found 84% of Gen Z students now consider sustainability a deciding factor at the checkout – with a quarter unaware that most beauty packaging is even recyclable.
Furthermore, 71% say they would recycle more effectively if packaging provided clearer disposal instructions.
For those organisations not yet involved they can download the Great British Beauty Clean Up campaign toolkit order a MYGroup x British Beauty Council recycling box, and start educating their customers on the subject.
“With Great British Beauty Clean Up 2026 now in full swing, we look forward to seeing the effective change it brings in increasing both industry and consumer awareness about recycling, reuse and refill with a view to creating long lasting behavioural change,” explained Brownlie.
Steve Carrie, group director of MYGroup, which already works with Selfridges, Boots, and Harrods on in-store recycling schemes, commented: “The industry knows it has a waste problem.
“The Great British Beauty Clean Up is about facing up to it, and MYGroup is here to make sure that action leads somewhere real. The campaign does something regulatory pressure alone cannot: it creates a moment where the whole industry is pointed in the same direction, asking the same question: “what happens to my beauty waste?”.”
He added: “Answering that question has been our business for years. We’ve built the infrastructure, developed the processing capability and proved the model.”
[image credit: Big Bolder Productions for British Beauty Council]
