By Rebecca Hitchon
An extra 30% of rubbish is produced and discarded over Christmas, compared with the rest of the year. Plus, January sales (and the boredom of lockdown 3.0) are bound to have encouraged more shopping and more wastefulness. Like me, many of you have probably been replacing beauty products ready for a fresh routine for the new year.
But how can we reduce our environmental impact when doing so? With the cosmetics industry producing more than 120 billion units of packaging globally annually, according to Zero Waste Week, it’s not something to overlook. Plus, over 95% of this beauty packaging is thrown away after just one use.
But do not fear, we’re here to tell you about zero waste initiatives that mean when buying new beauty products, you can be confident you are discarding your old ones in a sustainable way.
Beauty Kitchen’s goal is to produce the most effective, natural and sustainable beauty products globally. Therefore, it is no wonder that they created their zero waste Return Refill Repeat scheme. The initiative allows you to return your empty natural products to Beauty Kitchen with a downloadable freepost label.
The brand then clean and refill the empties with a new batch of product. You can also hand in empty products at any Holland & Barrett Store to receive 100 points on your Holland & Barrett loyalty card. The empties will get sent to Beauty Kitchen from there.
Here at KeiSei we love that an ancient Indian holistic healing system is the inspiration for Chāmpo’s naturally derived hair formulas. We also admire the brand’s strong commitment to sustainability. Chāmpo use fully recyclable plastics for their bottles and products arrive in recyclable and biodegradable boxes made from 80% recycled cardboard.
The zero waste beauty initiative that we want to highlight is their return-to-recycle scheme. When you send your Chāmpo bottle caps to the address mentioned here, the brand will clean and reuse them.
BYBI is a British natural skincare brand, with 100% vegan and skin-loving products. The brand works to reduce its environmental impact wherever possible, which is where their circular recycling scheme, ReBYBI, comes in. By letting you return your used BYBI glass bottles and jars for reuse, the sustainable beauty company works to reduce landfill waste, alongside energy intenstive recycling processes and production processes for new materials.
The zero waste programme is incredibly easy to take part in too. With every UK order on their website, you’ll receive a free returns label to send your empty products.
Styling tool company Cloud Nine is behind the first and only straightening iron recycling initiative. Their sustainable goal is to stop 1.5 million straighteners from going to landfill, all at no cost to you. Any brand of straighteners in any condition can be sent for recycling.
All you have to do is go to this page, complete a form to download a pre-paid postage label then securely package your old straighteners and send them off. It couldn’t be more straight forward!
Recycling one shower gel bottle would save enough energy to toast nearly three rounds of bread.
In store zero waste initiatives that you will be able to partake in once non-essential UK shops open
Unfortunately, due to the UK lockdown and closing of non-essential shops, some zero waste beauty schemes are not available right now. However, keep the sustainable initiatives we are about to tell you about in mind for when things open up again. You won’t want to miss them!
Origins not only strive to nourish your skin with their products powered by naturally derived ingredients, but they also strive to protect the environment. They make efforts to be sustainable in every process along their production line.
The brand offers recycling of empty beauty products from any brand if you visit one of the stores listed here. Recycling company WasteCare shred the empties and make them into plastic pellets for reuse in items like stationery and street signs.
Floral Street and Le Labo
With fragrance brands Floral Street and Le Labo, not only do they encourage being zero waste and sustainable but you also get a reward for it! By taking your empty perfume bottle into the Covent Garden Floral Street store or Le Labo stores in Edinburgh and London, you can receive a 20% discount on a refill of the bottle.
How do you try to reduce your environmental impact and be zero waste when discarding your empty beauty products? Let us know in the comments below or share with us on Instagram @keiseimgz.
Rebecca Hitchon
Rebecca is passionate about cultivating a more sustainable lifestyle and enjoys being able to mix this with her love for writing, alongside completing her final year of a journalism degree and working on her blog: rebeccahitchon.wordpress.com.
***
This article may contain some affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase, KeiSei Magazine receives a small percentage of the sale price, or some brands may have paid a small fee to be featured. We only recommend brands that match our sustainable and ethical criteria and that we truly believe in.
