Sephora hits 100,000-pound milestone for beauty packaging recycling

USA – Sephora has successfully collected over 100,000 pounds of empty beauty packaging through its Beauty (Re)Purposed program, marking a significant sustainability milestone celebrated on America Recycles Day 2025. 

Launched in 2023 across all freestanding Sephora stores in North America, this initiative operates in partnership with Pact Collective, a nonprofit focused on reducing beauty and wellness packaging waste.

The program addresses the challenge that about 95% of cosmetic packaging is not accepted in traditional curbside recycling due to size and material complexity. 

Beauty (Re)Purposed offers consumers a simple, convenient way to recycle by allowing them to drop off their clean, empty cosmetic containers, regardless of brand or where the products were purchased, at participating Sephora locations.

Once collected, the beauty empties are sorted and processed into new materials such as carpet, pallets, asphalt, new packaging, or energy, contributing to waste reduction and advancing circularity in the beauty industry. 

Sephora’s effort provides a practical disposal route for hard-to-recycle beauty packaging, empowering consumers to give their beauty empties a second life while supporting Sephora’s broader sustainability commitments.

According to Sephora, the 100,000 pounds milestone equates to about 6,000 shopping carts filled with empty beauty packaging, highlighting strong consumer engagement and the program’s impact. 

This ongoing initiative reflects Sephora’s leadership in promoting sustainable practices and educating its community about the complexity of beauty packaging recycling and the importance of industry collaboration for more innovative, more recyclable packaging designs in the future.

In a similar move, DECIEM, the parent company of The Ordinary, recently partnered with 4ocean to pledge to remove 1 million kilograms of ocean-bound plastic waste by 2028. 

This commitment is equivalent to removing approximately 40 million plastic bottles, specifically compared to The Ordinary’s Glycolic Acid 7% Exfoliating Toner bottles. 

The partnership directly supports 4ocean’s global cleanup operations, funding the removal of plastic and trash from coastlines, rivers, and oceans.

DECIEM’s sustainability approach includes more than 85% of its packaging being curbside recyclable and keeping plastic to about 13% of total packaging materials. 

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