In today’s beauty world, it’s become the responsibility of brands to do their best for the environment.
This covers things like choosing ingredients from ethical sources, donating a percentage of profits to charity, and exploring recyclable packaging materials.
However, if you truly want to reduce the carbon footprint your brand has on the planet, it’s not just about the things you do – but also about what your customers do.
Once a customer has brought your product, the power may be out of your hands but, it is possible to influence your customers to make more sustainable choices when they’ve finished with your product by encouraging them to reuse or recycle the packaging.
To do this, you need to make recycling as easy as possible, which you can do by setting up your own beauty packaging recycling scheme.
Why is it important to set up a beauty packaging recycling scheme?
Despite the beauty industry taking massive strides to become more environmentally friendly, there is still a big issue – especially when it comes to packaging and waste.
95% of all beauty packaging waste is thrown away straight after use, which is making the issue one of the most pressing for the entire industry.
By doing your part and encouraging your customers to recycle their used packaging (and using packaging designs that can be fully recyclable) you can help the whole industry tackle this problem and minimize the negative impacts beauty has on the planet.
How does a beauty packaging recycling scheme work?
In theory, a beauty packaging recycling scheme is extremely simple as it just involves your customers recycling their empty boxes, jars, or tubes after using them.
However, in practice, it can sometimes be a bit harder as customers aren’t very likely to go out of their way to recycle your products for you – without some sort of incentive.
The first thing you can do is start a scheme where you encourage customers to send their finished containers back to you; by providing a returns address or even a return postage sticker to make things easier.
Alternatively, you could partner with existing beauty recycling schemes that have locations across the country where customers can come in and drop off their beauty empties.
Whatever choice works best for your brand; recycling products is one way to give beauty packaging new life after use, which is better for us and the environment.