TerraCycle and Nordstrom are partnering for the BeautyCycle recycling program that will ensure plastic packaging units from beauty products "will never be landfilled, littered or incinerated." Previously: L'Oreal & TerraCycle Offer Makeup Recycling Bins in UK Stores According to TerraCycle, customers are able to bring any brand of beauty packaging waste to the beauty department at participating Nordstrom locations and dispose of them in the TerraCycle Zero Waste Boxes. Those boxes, once full, will then be returned to TerraCycle where the waste will be cleaned, melted and remolded to make new products. Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, said: “TerraCycle’s mission has always been to ‘Eliminate the Idea of Waste’ and we’ve proven that solutions do exist for items that may seem difficult to recycle. Nordstrom not only shares our commitment but has taken it to the next level by spearheading the Nordstrom BeautyCycle recycling program to reduce the impact of beauty packaging waste on the environment and help pave the way for a greener future.”

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Creating a circular beauty industry is proving incredibly difficult. The cosmetics and personal care categories face an obstacle course on their quest for sustainability, with hoops to jump through that include toxic ingredients, hazardous waste from common items like nail polish and perfume, plus so, so much plastic. The United Nations estimates that we produce 300 million tons of plastic trash every year (nearly the weight of the entire human population), and beauty packaging is largely to blame thanks to pumps, mirrored compacts, and caps that can’t be processed by curbside recycling programs. Up to this point, much of the innovation in low-impact environmental practices has been led by adaptable indie brands that set the standard for Big Beauty with clever mushroom-based Styrofoam alternatives and compostable materials. Today, Nordstrom’s TerraCycle partnership takes a significant step toward a more circular future with BeautyCycle, a product take-back and recycling initiative accepting a high-low mix of used-up beauty staples that matches your medicine cabinet—rather than the store’s inventory. “Nordstrom is the first major retailer to offer a beauty packaging recycling program for all brands,” says Gemma Lionello, the company’s executive vice president of accessories and beauty. “We committed to take back 100 tons of beauty packaging to ensure it’s recycled by 2025,” she shares of setting Nordstrom’s corporate social responsibility goals for the next five years, which include reducing single-use plastic by 50% and ensuring that 15% of all products are considered sustainable. To make their 200,000-pound promise happen, BeautyCycle will be available in 94 locations, where it will accept beauty packaging purchased from any retailer and made by any brand. It’s a goal that’s quite possible, based on the example that clean beauty retailer Credo set when it offered its take-back program for all beauty products, regardless of where they’re purchased. As of April 2020, Credo announced that after three years of partnering with TerraCycle, 6,300 customers brought “empties” into their stores, resulting in the proper recycling of more than 15 tons of products. To understand the scale of Nordstrom’s BeautyCycle initiative: For every Credo boutique (currently 11 nationwide), there are more than eight Nordstrom locations accepting products, promising to create an even more widespread movement—and conversation—among American beauty enthusiasts.

Recycling beauty products is a challenge, no matter how diligent you try and be. Due to the often intricate nature of bottles (metal springs in pumps, for example), the complications with colored- or darkened-glass, the plethora of plastic, formulas (like nail polish) that simply can't be recycled after use, embedded mirrors, and so on, even if you try your best, what you toss in the recycling bin likely still will end up in the landfill. It's, by all accounts, not a great situation for green beauty lovers. In fact, it's downright disappointing. The issue is there aren't great alternatives: Credo has a recycling program, and many individual brands have started doing refill initiatives in store or online. But this is only a small dent in the bigger picture. There are simply so many beauty products on the market and the fact is most of them can't be properly recycled.

As major retail players continue to navigate the ever-changing 2020 landscape, attempting to set themselves apart to consumers still proves to be a challenge. For Nordstrom, a brand that has reinvigorated itself in the better half of the last decade — with a fresh, editorial merchandising perspective and socially conscious initiatives — joining its costumers, and the world, on a push for environmental responsibility is its newest frontier. On Thursday, October 1, Nordstrom announced the launch of BEAUTYCYCLE, a new in-store beauty recycling program with global leader in the space, TerraCycle. The program, effective immediately, makes Nordstrom the first brand-agnostic beauty take-back and recycling program at any major retailer. Through BEAUTYCYCLE, customers can bring their empty beauty products to any Nordstrom or Nordstrom Local — regardless of brand or purchase location — to be recycled using boxes available in the beauty department. The retailer will then send the products to TerraCycle, where they will be cleaned and separated into metals, glass and plastics, and distributed for repurposing (think plastics into new park benches, metals into nuts and bolts). The program comes as Nordstrom set the remainder of its 2025 corporate social responsibility goals around environmental sustainability, where its team decided on three key impact areas of focus, including climate change, environmental impact of our products and services, and circularity. Through these goals, Nordstrom is committed to taking back 100 tons of beauty packaging to be recycled by 2025.

Luxury Daily's live news: US department store chain Nordstrom debuts BeautyCycle recycling program First major retailer to offer a recycling program for all brands of hard-to-recycle beauty packaging in partnership with global recycling leader TerraCycle.

Nordstrom customers can now recycle all brands of beauty packaging in-store. For this initiative, the retailer partnered with TerraCycle and Beautycycle, the first beauty take-back and recycling program accepting all brands of beauty packaging at a major retailer. Customers can now bring in their empty beauty product packaging to be recycled at any of Nordstrom’s full-line stores or Nordstrom Local service hubs in the continental United States. Through this program, Nordstrom aims to take back 100 tons of hard-to-recycle beauty packaging by 2025 to ensure it’s recycled. According to Nordstrom, many municipal recycling centers do not accept beauty materials and packaging, as they often contain a mix of materials that are not locally recyclable.

How it works

• Customers can bring their empty beauty products to any Nordstrom or Nordstrom Local to be recycled. Beautycycle boxes will be available in the beauty department.
• Nordstrom will send the content of these boxes to TerraCycle where they are cleaned and separated into metals, glass, and plastics.
• Those materials are then recycled based on the material composition. For example, plastics are recycled into a wide range of new products including park benches and picnic tables, while metals are reused as base materials for stamped product applications like nuts, bolts, washers, and rings.

What items can be recycled?

Customers can bring empty cosmetic, haircare or skincare packaging regardless of brand or purchase location. This includes:

• Shampoo and conditioner bottles and caps
• Hair gel tubes and caps
• Hair spray bottles and triggers
• Hair paste plastic jars and caps
• Lip balm tubes
• Face soap dispensers and tubes
• Lotion bottles, tubes, dispensers, and jars
• Shaving foam tubes (no cans)
• Lip gloss tubes
• Mascara tubes
• Eye liner pencils and cases
• Eye shadow and tubes
• Concealer tubes and sticks