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Sephora’s Beauty (Re)Purposed Program Helps Eliminate Waste!

Environmental concerns have taken center stage and the beauty industry is stepping up its game to address the pressing issue of packaging waste. Sephora, the leading beauty omni-retailer in the U.S. and Canada, has taken a giant leap towards promoting sustainability and circularity with its latest initiative – Beauty (Re)Purposed. In collaboration with Pact Collective, a nonprofit organization committed to reducing beauty and wellness packaging waste, Sephora has launched a groundbreaking program aimed at reducing the environmental impact of beauty product packaging.

Source: Sephora/YouTube

The Beauty (Re)Purposed program rolled out in more than 600 Sephora stores across the United States and Canada in May 2023. The primary goal of this initiative is to make the process of reducing hard-to-recycle material waste more approachable and accessible for consumers. The sad reality is that the majority of beauty and wellness packaging, often too small, too flexible, or made of too many materials, ends up in landfills, as the recycling rules vary regionally and are often complex.

Desta Raines, Director of Sustainability at Sephora, stated, “The launch of the Beauty (Re)Purposed program is an exciting step forward in Sephora’s commitment to leading the industry and offering more sustainable solutions for the communities we serve. And the reality is that discarding beauty packaging can be complex for many consumers.” This program will serve as a valuable education tool, helping both Sephora’s clients and the wider industry make more accessible choices when it comes to sustainable packaging.

The need for such a program is dire as almost 80 percent of all plastic ends up in landfills or pollutes our environment. An astonishing 8 million tons of plastic waste finds its way into our oceans annually. The beauty and wellness industries, which generate a staggering 120 billion packages each year, are particularly problematic as most of this packaging isn’t accepted in traditional curbside recycling programs.

The partnership between Sephora and Pact Collective marks a critical step toward scaling the collection program and making it more widely available to beauty shoppers. Carly Snider, Pact Program Director, expressed, “Together, we’re excited to take responsibility for beauty’s packaging problem and encourage more sustainable packaging decisions to drive industry-wide change.”

Sephora’s commitment to sustainability doesn’t end with Beauty (Re)Purposed. For over a decade, the company has partnered with g2 Revolution, a specialty recycling solutions company, diverting an impressive 23.7 million pounds of returned, damaged, or expired cosmetic product waste from landfills. G2 will now provide Support to Beauty (Re)Repurposed in collaboration with Pact, further strengthening their commitment to waste reduction.

The Beauty (Re)Purposed program simplifies the process for consumers, providing clear directions on how to divert beauty packaging from landfills. Customers are encouraged to:

Clean it out: Ensure the packaging is clean, unbagged, and free of liquid or product residue.
Drop it off: Visit any U.S. or Canadian Sephora store, regardless of the brand of the product, and place your empties in the dedicated collection bin.
Close the loop: Instead of being thrown away, the collected beauty empties will be transformed into something else through Pact’s partners, such as carpet, pallets, asphalt, new packaging, or energy.

While the recycling system at large can be complex, Sephora believes this is a crucial step towards addressing current packaging waste issues and will remain open to adapting the program as it scales. Sephora’s partnership with Pact represents a significant move towards designing packaging with end-of-life considerations from the start.

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