THG expands recycle:me scheme for cosmetics packaging

THG continues to evolve on the sustainability front. The digital consumer brands group has announced its expanded recycle:me, the consumer recycling scheme that targets hard-to-recycle beauty and cosmetic packaging, “allowing brand partners to offset new packaging waste fees”. 

The scheme offers partners “a truly collaborative approach” to tackling the beauty industry’s waste problem which, it says sees an estimated 120 million units of packaging thrown away each year. 

Through “established, trusted partners”, recycle:me provides detailed data that offers “insight into consumer recycling behaviour… crucially support[ing] new modulated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR fees) that businesses must face”.

So the scheme is targeting one million beauty product units recycled within the first year of launch. In conjunction with THG’s own beauty brands LookFantastic and Cult Beauty, it will allow consumers to recycle any brand’s cosmetic packaging at no cost, using a Royal Mail doorstep collection service.

Sales promotion, marketing, and digital specialist Metrisk, meanwhile, has partnered with recycle:me to create the free related app that consumers can use to scan their packaging, arrange a doorstep collection, and track reward points in exchange for eligible products. 

And in partnership with waste management company MyGroup, the packaging will then be repurposed and used for new projects such as beauty packaging research and development or creating equipment for schools. 

Mark Jones, chief sustainability officer at THG, said, “For brands, recycling schemes are incredibly complex and costly. With recycle:me, we are offering our brand partners a cohesive industry approach that provides the level of data needed under new EPR regulations.”