Many beauty enthusiasts crave a flawless complexion and a greener planet. With tiny components and packaging made from materials difficult to recycle, stocking up on your favorite beauty products can create a troubling dilemma.
Luckily, one Redditor discovered a beauty packaging recycling program that lets makeup and skincare gurus have the best of both worlds.
The Reddit user collected two years’ worth of empty makeup, skincare, and dental hygiene products they could not recycle through their municipal system. They discovered their local Sephora store partnered with Pact, a nonprofit collective that aims to end packaging waste in the beauty industry.
Through the Pact X Sephora partnership, consumers can drop off empties that are too small for traditional recycling at participating Sephora stores so they can be disposed of properly.
All the Redditor had to do was clean out their empties, ensuring they were free of liquid or product, and drop them off in a Pact bin at Sephora.
“It’s the easiest beauty recycling I’ve found,” the Redditor wrote.
After Pact collects empties, they have a few methods of reutilization. Items can be mechanically recycled to create another product, like packaging, carpet, or pallets. They can also be downcycled into asphalt, molecularly recycled to build something else, or converted to energy.
Recycling beauty packaging can benefit the environment immensely. Every year, the industry produces more than 120 billion packages. Because these items are difficult to recycle, they often end up in landfills, where materials can take decades to biodegrade.
By recycling their empties with the Pact X Sephora collective, this Redditor can shop for all of their favorite beauty products guilt-free.
Other Reddit users were impressed with this genius partnership, sharing their enthusiasm for the program in the comment section.
One Redditor wrote, “This is exciting!”
“Thanks for sharing,” one user wrote. “Sephora is definitely one of the places I still get stuff that is unfortunately not always sustainably packaged. This takes the edge off at least a bit!”
“This is cool!” another Redditor added. “And my local Sephora actually has one.”
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