“Fragrance recycling highlights why this experience matters. These products are used at scale but are typically binned after use. Through Reselfridges, we’re applying our established take-back solution in a department store environment, where even the hardest-to-recycle items can be captured at scale in meaningful volumes and recovered safely,” said Group Director, MYGroup Steve Carrie.
MYGroup has partnered with Selfridges to launch a new nationwide beauty and cosmetics recycling scheme, enabling customers to return beauty empties, including hard-to-recycle fragrance bottles.
Reselfridges Recycle is now available at all Selfridges Beauty Halls across Birmingham, Manchester and London’s Oxford Street, which attracts over 20 million visitors each year alone. Customers are incentivised through collecting a Selfridges Unlocked Key for every five items recycled as part of the retailer’s membership programme.
Reselfridges Recycle is making it easy to recycle fragrance bottles, which are often excluded from both kerbside recycling and other in-store take-back schemes due to residual hazardous contents and mixed packaging materials.
The new recycling scheme enables customers to return used perfume, aftershave and other fragrance bottles in full – including those still containing fragrance.
MYGroup, which holds permits to process hazardous and complex waste streams, manages the full end-to-end collection and processing of items returned through Reselfridges Recycle at its specialist facility in Hull, East Yorkshire. Packaging materials and residual cosmetic product, including fragrance, are recovered and returned to supply chains or remanufactured into new products through its ReFactory™ operation, avoiding landfill and incineration.
The nationwide launch follows a trial at Selfridges Trafford Centre in 2025, during which the number of Unlocked Keys collected increased 271% between September and November.
MYGroup’s retail take-back schemes continue to play an important role nationwide in capturing materials that household recycling systems are not designed to manage, particularly as brands and retailers face up to new extended producer responsibility requirements. “MYGroup has been working with retailers for many years to make beauty take-back a practical, scalable cornerstone of the sector’s commitment to recycling,” added Mr Carrie. “Through our schemes, we’ve now processed more than 40,000 tonnes of returned beauty and cosmetic packaging – success and experience that has helped shape this ambitious Reselfridges collaboration.”
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