As part of LUSH’s mission to ‘Leave the world Lusher than we found it,' on May 10 2021, LUSH Australia and New Zealand will launch Bring It Back – a fresh new packaging returns scheme.
The new program will enable customers to bring back any full-sized LUSH plastic packaging to their local LUSH shop to be recycled. For each plastic LUSH item returned, customers will receive a $1 deposit to spend on their LUSH basket that day.
The returned packaging will then be sent to Terracycle, a recycling organisation/facility that repurposes and properly recycles plastic.
The Bring It Back scheme will join LUSH’s pre-existing fresh face mask scheme that allows customers to bring back five items of LUSH plastic packaging in exchange for a fresh mask. This existing scheme sees an average of 11,000 pots come back to LUSH every month, which is 132,000 a year.
Bring It Back was born after the LUSH Earthcare team learnt that even with all the domestic recycling programs across many countries, only around 9-20% of plastics are recycled, and locally in Australia only 12% of plastic waste is recycled.
At LUSH, the majority of plastic packaging used is from recycled and recyclable plastic. However, the brand wants to take even more ownership of its plastic packaging and ensure its bottles, pots and tubs are given the new life they should have.
“We are the difference in the cosmetic industry; we have the ideas and the passion; it’s then about making those ideas a reality by getting everyone to join in,” LUSH co-founder and product inventor, Rowena Bird, said. “So spread the word, let’s put some positivity into plastic, after all it’s not plastic that’s the baddie, we’re the baddies when we don’t reduce, reuse and recycle it.”
Global LUSH Earthcare’s Rae Stanton-Smithson added: “We are working hard to offer people the ultimate wastefree shopping experience. We continue to invent revolutionary naked products, unique packaging materials, work on reusable plastic packaging items as well as looking into refilling options for the future. This recycling scheme is another step on our path to leaving the world Lusher than we found it.”
For more information about the Bring It Back scheme, click here.
