Cosmetics retailer Lush has launched a scheme that will pay customers for returning its plastic packaging back to its stores.
For each plastic packaging item received in a shop in Britain and Ireland, Lush will give a 50p deposit on purchases made that day.
The packaging will be sent to Lush’s Greenhub in Dorset where it will be sorted and processed before being sent to its UK recycling partners to be turned into new black Lush pots or for use in other industries.
It will work alongside another Lush scheme where customers can bring back five items of Lush packaging in return for a face mask.
So far, this existing scheme has meant 500,000 pots went to Lush’s Greenhub.
Lush Earthcare retail head Rae Stanton-Smithson said: “By moving towards a deposit-style scheme, whereby Lush customers know that they are ‘renting’ the packaging and can simply return it when they are finished, we keep the responsibility of waste-reduction and resource recycling as a company responsibility.
“All we need our customers to do is simply return their empties – we’ll take care of the rest.”