MYGroup, a leading UK waste management and recycling company, is joining forces with the British Beauty Council and its Sustainable Beauty Coalition for the 2026 Great British Beauty Clean Up, offering beauty businesses a special, fully managed take back solution for hard-to-recycle empties.
The MYGroup x British Beauty Council take-back scheme aims to encourage more brands, retailers, salons and spas to participate in the campaign’s month-long drive to help consumers refill, reuse and recycle their beauty products. Additional discounts to activate the scheme are available to supporters of the Beauty Council and Sustainable Beauty Coalition.
The take back scheme covers the safe and complete recovery of a wide range of used cosmetics and beauty products, including hazardous items and blister packs. All waste items can be deposited loose into specially designed, branded collection boxes placed in stores, salons and more.
The Great British Beauty Clean Up brings together brands, retailers and professionals across the sector to reduce waste and raise awareness of the pathways available to recycle items unsuitable for normal kerbside collections. The campaign will run from 2 March next year, tying into Global Recycling Day (18 March) and the UN International Day of Zero Waste (30 March).
The need to address waste from used cosmetics and beauty items is clear. UK households generate an estimated 21kg of plastic packaging annually, with bottles, pots, tubs and trays – all synonymous with cosmetics and personal care items – being a significant contributor. 56% of households do not recycle their bathroom empties at all, and 86% of used beauty and cosmetics products never make it to a recycling facility because they are too small, composite or complex for kerbside collection.
One of the pillars of the Great British Beauty Clean Up is to close this gap, making take back schemes for used products and empties more visible and accessible to shoppers and consumers, while encouraging businesses of all sizes to participate.
MYGroup is perfectly placed to support the campaign, with its provision of the special take back scheme for 2026 building on the company’s growing role as the industry’s trusted recycling partner. Earlier this year, it became the first waste management company to join the British Beauty Council as a patron.
To date, MYGroup’s established take back schemes for used cosmetics and beauty items, run in collaboration with leading brands and retailers such as Boots, Harrods (H beauty), Cult Beauty, LOOKFANTASTIC and Superdrug, have collected and processed 40,000 tonnes of products, plastic, metal, glass and cosmetic residue – equivalent in weight to three of London’s ‘Big Ben’ (Elizabeth Tower).
These collaborations are helping brands achieve their Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations and far exceed wider sustainability and circularity goals.
Through its ReFactory™ arm, MYGroup turns recovered materials into new products, from injection-moulded items such as combs and mirrors to MYBoard™ furniture and bespoke point-of-sale pieces made entirely from processed plastic waste. The company also holds full Environment Agency permits for hazardous waste, enabling safe processing of residual cosmetic material, which is converted into bio-fuel.
Beyond recycling, MYGroup’s six-acre Bio-Park is developing bio-derived materials through insect and worm bioconversion, mycelium and algal cultivation, while its SchoolCycled™ programme engages over 40,000 pupils in hands-on circular learning, turning collected plastics into furniture for their schools. “We believe there must be a growing convergence between beauty brands and waste management partners to build the systems and drive the behaviours that will define a more sustainable sector,” said Group Director of MYGroup Steve Carrie. “From our industry leading take back schemes to new materials innovation at our Bio-Park, as well as the impact we’re creating through SchoolCycled, MYGroup stands ready to help guide the industry into this next chapter.”
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