Ulta Beauty and Pact have expanded their Beauty Dropoff recycling initiative chainwide, providing drop-off bins for clean, empty packaging from any beauty brand or retailer at all 1,350+ stores. The companies initially piloted the program last year in 90 Ulta Beauty stores, according to Glossy.
Customers need to ensure there’s no liquid left in the packages and that they are small enough (generally no bigger than a fist) for the Beauty Dropoff program; larger packages can often be placed in curbside recycling. Pact provides guidelines for drop-off eligibility.
Ulta Beauty isn’t the first retailer to take on the challenge of recycling these products’ containers and packaging, but with the chainwide expansion it’s certainly among the largest in terms of scope. Other retailers’ efforts include:
- Nordstrom launched its BEAUTYCYCLE program in October 2020;
- Walmart piloted beauty package recycling in partnership with Procter & Gamble at 25 stores in September 2022;
- Saks debuted its Beauty Recycling program in November 2022; and
- Sephora began working with Pact on its Beauty (Re)Purposed recycling program in April 2023.
