Sephora Launches a New Recycling Program
Sephora is rolling out an empties collection program.
The initiative, called Beauty (Re)Purposed, will be available in all 600 stores in the U.S. and Canada and has been designed in partnership with Pact Collective to help reduce hard-to-recycle packaging waste in the industry.
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The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only around 9 percent of plastic is recycled in the U.S. and according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, some plastic objects can remain in marine environments for hundreds of years. Plastic bottles, for example, last 450 years.
Desta Raines, director of sustainability at Sephora, said: “The reality is that discarding beauty packaging can be complex for many consumers. It was important for Sephora to find a partner like Pact who shares our values and, in collaboration, can help to educate our clients and the broader industry in making the process more accessible for all.”
The program comprises two steps: cleaning out the product at home to make sure packaging is clean, unbagged, and free of liquid or product; and dropping it off in store. Then, instead of being thrown away, the beauty empties could become something else — like carpet, pallets, asphalt, new packaging or energy.
Separately, Benefit Cosmetics, which is also owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, has also partnered with Pact Collective. Its program allows customers to mail in up to five empty beauty products per month, with the brand covering shipping to Pact. These empties don’t have to be from Benefit.
“Partnering with Pact to offer a takeback program was a natural fit for us, allowing us to move towards a more sustainable future and to provide consumers with easy solutions to do good,” said Benefit’s director, U.S. ecommerce Joanne Marzan. “Sustainability is a top priority for both Benefit and our consumers, and is of course Pact’s mission.”
The initiatives are being undertaken by the brands directly, but they are part of LVMH’s overall Life360 program, its environmental performance roadmap, a rep for LVMH confirmed.
Both brands follow MAC, which recently announced it was evolving its Back to MAC sustainability program, which was first introduced in 1990 and enables consumers to return product empties en masse via mail or to participating MAC counters in exchange for a free product of their choosing, with the aim of reducing landfill waste.
In 2022, more than 340,000 pounds of empty MAC containers — the equivalent of roughly 9.3 million lipsticks — were processed in the U.S. through Back to MAC, and now, the brand has teamed up with Close the Loop and Plastics for Change to execute an even greater program impact in 2023 and beyond.
The brand has also pledged an initial donation of $100,000 to provider of ethically sourced, recycled plastic, Plastics for Change.
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