Mecca Australia has extended its free national in-store beauty waste recycling program, run in partnership with TerraCycle, to include the collection of glass perfume and fragrance bottles.
Mecca customers, who have already been able to recycle any brand of empty cosmetic, haircare and skincare packaging through the Mecca Beauty Product Free Recycling Program since 2019, can now also recycle any brand of empty glass perfume and fragrance bottles.
Rather than sending empty glass bottles to landfill, fragrance users can drop off their empties in the TerraCycle collection bins in Mecca stores nationwide.
The recent expansion is an important step to increase access to recycling for hard-to-recycle beauty waste.
Unlike whole glass bottles, fragrance bottles are not accepted in kerbside recycling in Australia due to their complex composition.
While whole glass bottles and jars are made from a single type of glass and can be placed in the kerbside recycling bin, fragrance bottles are made of different types of glass and feature spray pumps, metal fixtures, as well as other decorative features that have to be removed manually and recycled separately.
“We’re always working to reduce our impact on the environment, and we know our customers are too,” said Sophie Wood, general manager of Retail at Mecca.
“Over the past four years, our customers have really taken to TerraCycle, often coming in with bags full of their favourite beauty empties to recycle, so we’re sure they’re going to love that they can now add fragrances to the mix.
“When it comes to reducing waste, we know our work is far from done. So, as we continue to build on our partnership with TerraCycle, we’re also working closely with our brands and partners to look at how we can design products and packaging based on circular economy principles, and where else we can make improvements within our stores.”
Since the launch of the recycling program in October 2019, Mecca customers across Australia and New Zealand have dropped off over a million hard-to-recycle empty beauty containers for recycling and successfully diverted them from landfill.
“We’re excited to be able to extend our partnership with Mecca and offer a free recycling solution for customers to return even more hard-to-recycle empty beauty waste,” said Jean Bailliard, general manager of TerraCycle ANZ.
“This welcome expansion will allow us to recycle even more beauty packaging converting it into new materials that are used by manufacturers to create brand new products.”
Accepted items in Mecca’s recycling program
Mecca’s Beauty Product Free Recycling Program accepts any brand of makeup, hair care or skin care packaging, including:
- Shampoo bottles and caps
- Conditioner bottles and caps
- Hair gel tubes and caps
- Hair paste plastic jars and caps
- Lip balm tubes
- Soap dispensers and tubes
- Lotion bottles, tubes, dispensers and jars
- Shaving foam tubes (no cans)
- Lip gloss tubes
- Mascara tubes
- Eyeliner pencils and cases
- Eyeshadow tubes
- Concealer tubes and sticks
- Empty perfume/fragrance glass containers, including fragrance sample vials, travel-sized and mini fragrance
Just a reminder for those making a drop-off, while packaging and fragrance bottles do not need to be cleaned to be dropped off for recycling, they must be empty or almost empty.
