John Lewis launches a new recycling scheme for your beauty products

Excellent news

These days there are many ways that you can try and make your beauty routine more sustainable. We can opt for products that are conscious of their packaging to reduce plastic waste, we can choose products that are actually completely plastic-free (hello, Lush refillable lipsticks) or purchase items that donate a portion of their profits to environmental causes, such as this palm oil-free soap that saves endangered Orangutans.

But do you recycle beauty products? It's also an important step in the move to reduce waste and single-use plastic, but not many people know exactly what to do with their empty bottles, pots and jars (which is why we put together a very helpful cheat sheet).

Luckily, some big brands are also stepping in to help you recycle beauty products. The Body Shop have brought back their instore recycling scheme, and it seems that department store John Lewis are following suit by offering a service to encourage their customers to recycle their empties.

They're teaming up with TerraCycle for the BeautyCycle scheme. Once the packaging has been picked up from the stores, TerraCycle will separate the metal, fibre and plastic products to be recycled or composted.

John Lewis senior sustainability manager Martyn White said: 'Our customers are becoming more mindful about what they buy and what happens to products once they’ve reached the end of their first life.

'Beauty products are notoriously hard to recycle which can make it hard for customers to know what to do with them, which often means they end up being thrown in the bin. One of our key aims is to make ‘being sustainable’ as easy as possible for customers, so it doesn’t have to be a difficult choice.

'The BeautyCycle trial will help us to do just that, enabling customers to shop and enjoy beauty products in a more sustainable way, ensuring the materials are re-used in the best way possible.'

You'll also get a £5 voucher to spend on beauty products in store, and the only empties you won't be able to drop off are perfume bottles, nail varnish and aerosol cans. Currently the trial is for select members of the My JL loyalty programme who have been invited to take part.

The trial run will launch in 36 stores for one month and if it's successful, they'll expand the initiative.

Fingers crossed.