The Beauty of Recycling: Watsons Launches Regionwide Recycling Programme with L’Oréal

Watsons understands that its responsibility towards the environment goes beyond the product range. Inspiring behavioural change amongst its customers is of utmost importance to help create a more sustainable world. As such, Watsons has rolled out a regionwide recycling programme with L'Oréal.

In Taiwan, Watsons has worked with Maybelline to set up recycling bins in stores. For every empty bottle that is recycled, Maybelline will make donation to Re-Think to run sustainability education programmes. Meanwhile in Thailand, Watsons' customers can recycle their PET plastic bottles at the Garnier Refund Machine in selected stores and earn a free Garnier Pink Micellar Water; while in Indonesia, Watsons has launched a recycling programme with Garnier to encourage customers to recycle plastic bottles at Watsons stores.

To further widen its sustainability impact, the regionwide recycling programme has now been extended to the fourth market, Hong Kong. To accelerate its sustainability endeavors, Watsons Hong Kong has partnered with L'Oréal to roll out the 'Beauty for the Future' recycling campaign. From now on, customers can recycle the cleaned containers of any beauty brand, including foundation bottles, mascara wands, skincare tubs, and lipstick tubes at around 170 Watsons stores across the city in exchange for rewards in the city's largest loyalty platform MoneyBack.

Once collected, V Cycle will break down the wastes, separate them by materials, and work with local partners to transform them into new raw materials. The scaled-up campaign goal is to collect 250,000 containers in the 12 months following the official launch, which is equivalent to the height of two Mount Everests when stacked up[1].

"Pre-loved beauty packages have their place, but that place is not in landfills. Our goal is to meet it head-on with the first cross-brand recycling programme involving 18 of our beauty brands in 2021. Today, we are thrilled to work with partners along the value chain to expand the programme and positively impact people's lives while preserving the planet," said Eva Yu, President & Managing Director of L'Oréal Hong Kong. "With the scaled-up recycling campaign as part of our 'L'Oréal for the Future' sustainability programme, we want to further inspire and influence how our consumers think and what they do about packaging wastes – not as something to toss out, but as a resource that can be recycled and used again, and sustainably, reducing the impact on our environment. Our partnership with Watsons and V Cycle will help make this a reality."

"At Watsons, we believe Going Green is The New Beautiful. We made it our purpose to do the right things for our customers and the planet. Sharing a common sustainability vision with L'Oréal, we appreciate this Beauty of Recycling partnership in the region to educate customers as well as engage them in action so that together we can create a bigger impact to the planet today and tomorrow," said Malina Ngai, CEO of A.S. Watson (Asia and Europe).

References

1. ^{^} Media OutReach (www.media-outreach.com)
2. ^{^} its regionwide recycling programme to Hong Kong (www.media-outreach.com)