M&S has put an increased focus on its Beauty section in recent years and is also putting more emphasis on sustainability for this product category.
The store now has dedicated beauty takeback boxes in new locations including Birmingham Bullring, Cardiff, and Inverness, in a bid to make the scheme more accessible to customers across the entire UK.
M&S' head of sustainability, clothing & home, Katharine Beacham, explained that the company wants to “play our part in driving a more circular economy and the circularity services we offer are key to this.”
Beacham said that since the scheme launched last year it has proven to be a hugely popular and convenient option for customers to recycle their beauty products.
“We’re delighted to be able to introduce the scheme to even more of our stores across the UK this month, to enable them to give their empty beauty packaging another life,” she said.
Focusing on circularity
M&S said it is putting a strategic emphasis on circularity. When designing its products it will ensure they are “made well and made to last”, and it is also offering services to help customers give their items another life.
The retailer initially launched the takeback scheme in June 2023 as part of its Plan A roadmap to Net Zero. The initiative enables customers to recycle any form of plastic or aluminium beauty packaging, from bottles and tubes to caps, pumps, and tubs, from any retailer, by dropping their used beauty packaging into dedicated boxes located within M&S’s beauty section.
Since launch, the scheme has processed over 1.6 tonnes of beauty packaging (the equivalent of a small car) which otherwise might have ended up in landfill.
As part of M&S’ ongoing partnership with beauty-specific recycling company Handle, the retailer has also produced a wide-toothed hair comb, made from at least 98% of the recycled packaging collected by M&S as part of the scheme. The comb will be available to purchase online and in selected stores for £8.
From the Beauty Takeback Scheme with Handle, a new repair partnership with SOJO to its long-running clothes donation partnership with Oxfam, all initiatives now sit together as part of Plan A - ‘Another Life’, which the retailer said will “offer a more seamless experience for customers who are looking for ways they can support a shift to a more circular economy.”
