It just got easier to recycle your beauty products: As the first major retailer to offer a recycling program for all brands, Nordstrom pledges to take back 100 tons of beauty packaging by 2025.

As the first major retailer to offer a recycling program for all brands, Nordstrom pledges to take back 100 tons of beauty packaging by 2025. of packaging every year, and much of this waste is not collected by curbside programs,” says Sue Kauffman, TerraCycle’s North American public relations manager. “Many of TerraCycle’s recycling partnerships are mail-in programs that invite consumers to send in product or packaging waste that is specific to the company that produced it or whom we’ve partnered with,” Kauffman notes. “The recycling partnerships TerraCycle has with Credo and BeautyCycle are a bit different since they allow consumers to drop off their waste at in-store collection points.” The brand-agnostic aspect of this is essential in creating the largest impact because to create a system that consumers adopt, convenience is key. “We encourage customers to designate an area or container in your bathroom to keep your empties until you’re ready to bring them to Nordstrom to be recycled,” says Lionello. The nearest drop-off can be located on its digital map feature, and a stroll to the beauty counter is all it takes to give packaging that would have likely been sent to a landfill a second life.In their next act, beauty products take on the form of anything from outdoor seating to hardware store supplies. “After TerraCycle receives the collected waste, the material is consolidated into large volumes before it is shredded and sorted by material type. From there, it is cleaned, melted, and recycled into a wide range of new plastic products, such as park benches and picnic tables,” Kauffman explains. “Likewise, metals are separated using a system of magnets and smelted to create raw material for reuse as a base material for stamped product applications like nuts and bolts, washers, and rings. Glass is cleaned and sorted by color for processing, where it is crushed and melted to be used in new glass products or other applications.” AdvertisementEven with these innovations in the recycling process, it’s important to keep in mind that some beauty products simply can’t be recycled at this point. These include aerosol cans, electronics like blow-dryers and straighteners, perfume bottles, and nail polishes and removers. “Due to federal regulations, some beauty products are classified as hazardous waste at end of life due to the product either having high alcohol content, which creates a fire risk in transit, or the packaging itself being pressurized,” Kauffman says. Ideally, educating consumers about the impossibility of incorporating certain items into a circular beauty economy will encourage them to seek alternatives or pare down their overall use. Instead of a pressurized can of shaving cream, one might opt for The Art of Shaving’s Lavender Shaving Soap, for example. Similarly, making it crystal clear that an empty Burt’s Bees lip balm, Chanel eyeliner pencil nub, BareMinerals mascara tube, and Davines conditioner tub can all be bundled and handed off to a Nordstrom beauty rep in a single eco-friendly step is news that we can all use. “I’m excited to connect with our customers in a new and meaningful way, especially because this is such an important subject,” says Lionello. “I hope BeautyCycle makes it easier for everyone to recycle their beauty packaging so that we can leave this Earth better than we found it.”