Return, Recycle, Repeat: Behold The Body Shop’s new sustainable beauty solution

One step to make our beauty regime more eco-friendly and our oceans healthier? Recycle. Bathroom. Empties.

Let’s face it: we’ve all ditched a plastic shampoo bottle, face cream pot or shower gel in the bin at some point, without checking whether they’re suitable for recycling. The Body Shop is now on a mission to help us clean up our act – coming up with a creative incentive programme that helps make the entire recycling process a whole lot easier and accessible for us all (and may even reward you for it!).

Teaming up with TerraCycle®, The Body Shop’s new in-store recycling scheme allows customers to take back their empty cosmetic bottles, jars, tubs, tubes and pots in participating UK stores so TerraCycle® can recycle them. TerraCycle® will recycle and re-purpose the accepted packaging into new products from watering cans and storage containers to outdoor furniture.

As an added bonus, The Body Shop Love Your Body™ Club members can bring back any five empty bottles, jars, tubs, tubes and pots from The Body Shop and receive a £5 voucher*. Win for you and the planet!

Further tackling the industry’s environmental footprint, The Body Shop recently unveiled its first Community Trade Recycled Plastic, in partnership with Plastics For Change.

Terms and conditions apply.

Almost half of the world’s population has no formal waste management which has given rise to ‘waste pickers’ who make a living from picking and sorting waste. India alone has 1.5 million waste pickers – mostly women – working in informal waste management. The Body Shop and Plastics for Change will work alongside local partners to help transform the lives of waste pickers, supporting with access to more sanitary working conditions, a fair price for their work and the respect and recognition they deserve. Alongside championing plastic as a valuable renewable resource when used responsibly.

Marking a wider ambition for the pioneer of sustainable beauty, this year alone The Body Shop plans to purchase 250 tonnes of this Community Trade recycled plastic to use in nearly three million 250ml haircare bottles, scaling to 900 tonnes in 2021, as well as quickly extending its use to the wider product range.

And The Body Shop is not stopping at plastic, they’re looking at a responsible and circular approach with all its materials. We hear they’ve some exciting projects in the pipeline that they hope to share soon.

Time to turn your rubbish into rewards…