Sephora’s waste recycling initiative has hit a major milestone: More than 100,000 pounds of empty beauty packaging collected through its Beauty (Re)Purposed program has been diverted from landfills, the beauty giant has announced.
The sum is equivalent to roughly 6,000 shopping carts full of beauty empties, Sephora says.
Launched in 2023, the initiative is designed to address the beauty industry’s recycling challenges. An estimated 95% of cosmetic packaging is typically discarded because it is too small or made of mixed materials that most curbside programs do not accept.
The company initiated the program across all freestanding Sephora stores in the U.S. and Canada through a partnership with Pact Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing beauty product waste. More than 600 stores and Sephora’s corporate offices are recycling dropoff locations.
According to Pact, 120 billion cosmetic packages are created each year, though only a fraction of them are recycled. Most are landfilled, incinerated, or littered, eventually ending up in the ocean.
Customers can drop off empty packaging from any beauty brand at participating Sephora stores, regardless of where the products were purchased. The materials are sent to facilities where they are sorted and processed into items such as carpet, pallets, asphalt, new packaging, or energy, according to the company.
Sephora encourages customers to clean out containers before bringing them in and to follow Pact Collective’s collection guidelines. The nonprofit accepts a wide range of materials including plastic, metal, paper, aluminum, ceramic, glass, and silicone.
Pact has partnered with several other retailers, including Ulta Beauty and Saks Fifth Avenue, to collect and recycle beauty empties across the U.S. and Canada. Here is a list of its participating locations.