The French cosmetics giant, L’Oreal, reportedly supplied around 1000 stores in the UK with baskets for recycling cosmetics materials in order to contribute to the preservation of ecosystems. L’Oreal’s Maybelline’s US brand, in partnership with the waste management company, TerraCycle, will install make-up recycling bins in a number of well-known drugstores and shops, notably Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Superdrug and Boots. On this new initiative, L’Oreal’s UK branch director said the company seeks to become a pioneer in sustainable investment and lead the way in making recycling cosmetics a trend. In turn, L’Oreal’s UK and Ireland managing director, Vismay Sharma, told BBC that the company boasts the ability to inspire customers and make impact at real scale. Meanwhile, commenting on the above step by the leading beauty firm, Greenpeace said recycling alone is not enough. Will McCallum, head of Oceans at Greenpeace, for his part, said it is disappointing to see a major cosmetics producer fail to commit to reduce plastic consumptions. Without an action plan towards recyclable packaging and a reduction of single-use plastic production, companies cannot claim they are doing enough, McCallum warned. Noting, that according to the Zero Waste Week campaign, more than 120 billion units of packaging are manufactured every year across the world by the cosmetics industry alone. In this respect, BBC reported that the consumption of plastic by L’Oreal alone reached 137,000 tons in 2019. (An Nahar, September 12, 2020)
