Along with Love Island and Glastonbury, sustainability is the hottest topic right now and here at GLAMOUR HQ, we are advocates of making conscious efforts (no matter how big or small) to work towards a better planet.

We're pretty clued up on circular fashion and with supermarkets like Waitrose launching sustainability schemes, reducing our plastic footprint and zero waste packaging is gradually getting easier.

Now it's time to turn our attention to our beauty regimes and one retailer is hoping to assist with a groundbreaking new recycling scheme. John Lewis & Partners is launching a beauty recycling trial, called BeautyCycle, which offers members of its my John Lewis loyalty programme the chance to recycle empty makeup and skincare beauty products from any brand.

The high street retailer has teamed up with TerraCycle whose mission is to 'eliminate the idea of waste' and does this by recycling the 'previously non-recyclable' and diverting waste from landfills and incinerators.

According to TerraCycle, the global cosmetics industry produces 120 billion units of packaging each year (eek!) and very little of this packaging is accepted by local recycling programmes.

Many beauty products are designed to be squeezable, twistable and portable and often contain caps, labels and pumps which make them harder to recycle. TerraCycle, therefore, takes empty beauty packages and separates them into metals, fibres and plastics. Each component part is then recycled, composted or in the case of plastics, made into pellets which can be moulded into new products like storage containers, plastic lumber and outdoor furniture; it's pretty genius stuff.

Discussing the new scheme, which GLAMOUR wholeheartedly welcomes, Martyn White, Senior Sustainability Manager at John Lewis & Partners, 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.”

Laure Cucuron, General Manager for TerraCycle Europe, added: “Very few beauty products or beauty product packaging, outside of say plastic bottles, are accepted by most council kerbside recycling systems due to the complexity of the material. So we are delighted to be working with John Lewis & Partners to offer their customers the chance to recycle empty beauty products and packaging in John Lewis stores across the UK.”

The month-long trial begins on 14 June and all John Lewis shops with full-line beauty services will take part (36 shops) using TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box solution. The trial’s purpose is to understand customer demand for beauty recycling, with a wider ambition to make the scheme permanent if successful - and we're really hoping it will become a permanent fixture.

So how can you get involved? The scheme accepts all types of packaging, from shampoo bottles and caps to lotion bottles and jars, lip gloss and mascara tubes. The only packaging not accepted by the scheme is aerosol cans, nail varnish bottles and fragrance bottles, due to their potential flammability.

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Being more environmentally-friendly with your makeup disposal can also start with the purchases you make. Here are a few of the sustainable beauty brands John Lewis stocks:

  • Elemis pro-collagen rose-cleansing balm: Elemis works closely with a small British farm to make sure this balm’s ingredients are harvested sustainably. The use of plants like starflower and elderberry help support the honeybee population.

  • Clarins Sun Care Cream: When suncream washes off into the sea, it can damage delicate coral reefs. Clarins new Sun Care range has been formulated to be gentle on coral reefs (and your skin). The packaging is also made from recycled plastic.

  • Aveda Show You Care Shampure: The 500ml bottle of Aveda’s Shampure contains the amount of two normal-size bottles, while using 28% less plastic. One hundred per cent of the price goes to providing clean water in India and Nepal.

  • REN Atlantic Kelp and Magnesium body wash: REN teamed up with Terracycle to create this pioneering 100% recycled bottle, with 20% reclaimed ocean plastic. It supports their gradual move towards darker recycled bottles and supports Ocean Clear Up activities across the world fight ocean plastic pollution.

  • Guerlain Abbeille Royale Youth Watery Oil: The honey used for this oil is made from rare black bees which live on a tiny French island. Guerlain supports the island's Black Bee Conservatory Association and is working with other conservation organisations to establish 10 million new bee hives.

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