Makeup Labs

How to Recycle Your Makeup Empties (and Earn Rewards) in the UK

Written by

Gabriela Chyzy

in

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Most of us have a drawer of empties we feel too guilty to bin but cannot quite work out how to recycle. Makeup packaging is notoriously fiddly, mixing tiny plastic parts, mirrors, magnets and metal springs that standard kerbside collections simply cannot handle. The result is that the vast majority of beauty packaging still ends up in landfill or incineration.

The encouraging news is that the UK now has a genuinely useful network of takeback schemes, several of which reward you for taking part. This guide explains what you can recycle at home, where to take the tricky bits, and how to earn money or freebies for doing the right thing. We finish with low-waste swaps so your next empties create far less waste in the first place.

In This Guide:

  1. Why makeup packaging is so hard to recycle
  2. What you can recycle at home (and what you can’t)
  3. Store takeback schemes that reward you
  4. TerraCycle for the tricky bits
  5. Buy better next time: low-waste swaps

1. Why makeup packaging is so hard to recycle

Beauty packaging is designed to look beautiful and protect delicate formulas, not to be taken apart at the end of its life. A single compact might combine rigid plastic, a glued mirror, a metal hinge and a magnetic closure, while a mascara holds a spiral wand and a wiper that cannot be separated easily. Anything smaller than a credit card also tends to fall through the machinery at recycling plants, so even recyclable parts get lost.

Because of this, councils usually reject makeup packaging from kerbside bins. That is exactly the gap takeback schemes are designed to fill, by collecting beauty empties separately and sending them for specialist processing.

2. What you can recycle at home (and what you can’t)

Some empties can go in your household recycling if they are clean, empty and large enough. Glass serum bottles, rigid plastic bottles over the size of a yoghurt pot, and aluminium tins are often accepted, though you should always check your local council’s rules first. Give everything a quick rinse, and remove pumps and droppers, which usually cannot be recycled.

What you should not put in kerbside bins are small or mixed-material items: mascara wands, lipstick bullets, compacts, palettes, sample sachets and anything with a mirror or magnet. Set these aside for one of the schemes below rather than contaminating your recycling, since a few wrong items can see a whole load rejected.

3. Store takeback schemes that reward you

The high street is where makeup recycling gets rewarding. The Recycle at Boots scheme lets you drop empty beauty, health and wellness packaging into in-store points, and when you return five empties alongside a qualifying spend you earn bonus Advantage Card points, so your recycling effectively pays you back.

Lush runs its Bring It Back scheme, where five clean Lush pots earn you a free fresh face mask, or you can take 50p per returned item. Marks and Spencer operates a Beauty Takeback scheme that accepts plastic or aluminium beauty packaging from any brand, not just its own, and John Lewis has run beauty recycling points in partnership with recycling specialists too. Between them, these schemes mean almost every empty has a home that does not involve the bin.

It helps to keep a small bag or box by the bathroom door to collect empties as you finish them. Saving up a batch means a single trip to the high street clears weeks of packaging at once, and because most schemes reward five returns at a time, a little patience turns your empties into points, money off or a free treat rather than landfill.

4. TerraCycle for the tricky bits

For the items nobody else will take, TerraCycle is the safety net. Its Beauty Products and Packaging Zero Waste Box accepts virtually all makeup and skincare empties, including the mixed-material offenders, and the contents are cleaned, separated and turned into new raw materials rather than landfilled.

The box is a paid option, so it works best for a household, a workplace or a friendship group pooling their empties together. Many UK retailers and brands also run free TerraCycle-backed collection points in store, so it is always worth checking whether there is a free drop-off near you before buying a box of your own.

5. Buy better next time: low-waste swaps

Recycling is the last resort. The bigger win is buying products that create less waste to begin with, which usually means choosing refillable and recyclable formats. Refillable makeup lets you keep the case and replace only the colour, while brands that use recyclable mono-materials and rescued ingredients make the whole cycle cleaner.

Below are a few low-waste swaps that are easy to find on Amazon UK. None of them are perfect, but each one quietly shrinks the pile of empties in your drawer, which is the most sustainable outcome of all.

You do not have to overhaul everything at once either. Swapping one product at a time, as each old one runs out, is the realistic way to build a lower-waste routine that actually sticks, and it spreads the cost so sustainable choices never feel like a chore.

Our Sustainable Picks

  1. Zao Refillable Bamboo Makeup. Keep the bamboo case and buy only the colour refill, which cuts packaging dramatically. Vegan and Ecocert-certified organic.
  2. UpCircle Beauty. London brand that rescues ingredients other industries throw away and uses recyclable, refillable packaging across its range.
  3. TerraCycle Beauty Zero Waste Box. A pre-paid box that accepts almost any makeup or skincare empty, ideal for pooling a household’s hard-to-recycle items.
  4. LastObject LastRound Reusable Pads. Washable rounds that replace hundreds of single-use cotton pads, cutting bathroom waste at the source.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Recycling your makeup empties in the UK is easier, and more rewarding, than it has ever been. Sort the simple stuff for your kerbside bin, take the tricky pieces to Boots, Lush or M&S, and lean on TerraCycle for everything else. Then close the loop by choosing refillable and low-waste products next time, so the drawer of guilt slowly becomes a thing of the past.

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