It’s unfortunate, but many different types of beauty, body and skincare products are almost impossible to recycle at home. There’s been a great new scheme announced today by Boots that’s not only great for the planet, it can also help you fund new makeup.
In 50 participating Boots stores you’ll be able to scan in 5 pieces of packaging to be recycled, and in return you’ll get 500 Advantage Card points worth £5.
How does it work?
You don’t even have to have bought the products in Boots, they can be from anywhere. Loads of things are accepted, everything from toothpaste tubes to empty lipsticks. So even if you’ve found this page and you aren’t a makeup lover, you can drop off your vitamin bottles and old hand creams, too.
Make sure that the items aren’t on the short list of things they don’t accept, as you can’t bring in nail polish bottles, razor blades, aerosols, hair dye or brow/lash tint packaging. Find full guidance on the Boots Recycling site.
Boots have suggested that you clean out your empties as well as possible before you bring them in to recycle. They said that if it’s something really difficult to clean out (i.e mascara) it’s fine to bring it in as-is.
I have now (as of Sunday the 27th of September) actually done this, so I can tell you how it really works.
How to scan in your items
- You’ll need to go onto the Scan2Recycle website to create an account. You’ll also need a Boots Advantage card if you don’t already have one.
- If you aren’t already on your phone, open the Boots Scan2Recycle site on your phone. Then you’ll need to upload a picture of your old packaging, then fill out what brand it is, and the type of packaging. I.e No7, mascara tube.
- Once you’ve done this five times, take your phone and your empty products to one of the Boots stores listed below.
- Then click ‘Deposit 5 items’ on the Scan2Recycle app and it’ll ask you to scan the QR code on the box with your phone.
- Drop your items into the box, and you should get an email from Boots.
- Take that email to the No7 counter on the day you dropped off your things, and they will scan the barcode and your Advantage card to add 500 points to your account.
One warning, if you have your email client on dark/night mode, you might not be able to see the barcode. It’s what happened to me, but it was there in the end! Your points get added straight away, which is nice.
Points are capped at a maximum of 500 per day, but you could always make multiple trips if you have even more empties.
Where can I bring my old packaging?
The stores taking part in this scheme are:
Jersey
- Jersey St Helier Queen Street
- Jersey St Helier King Street
London
- Tottenham Hale Retail Park
- London Olympic Park Westfield Stratford City
- London 193 Oxford Street
- London Bloomsbury
- London 361 Oxford Street Sedley Place
- London Piccadilly Circus
- London Chelsea 148 Kings Road
- London Gloucester Road
- Barnet High Street
- London Brixton Road
- London Wimbledon Centre Court Shopping Centre
- London Balham High Road
- London Kew
- Borehamwood Retail Park
- Watford The Harlequin
- Bromley The Glades Shopping Centre
Midlands
- Birmingham The Bull Ring Shopping Centre
- Birmingham High Street
- Birmingham Fort Dunlop
- Cannock Church Street
- Rushden Lakes Shopping Park
- Nottingham Giltbrook Retail Park
- Leicester Fosse Park Shopping Centre
- Leicester Beaumont Leys
South East
- Bracknell The Lexicon Shopping Centre
- Staines Two Rivers Retail Park
- Dartford Bluewater
- Oxford Cornmarket Street
- Witney High Street
- Didcot The Orchard Centre
- Dagenham Heathway The Mall
- Romford The Liberty
- Brighton North Street
- Gillingham Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre
South West
- Bournemouth Castle Point Shopping Park
- Salisbury Silver Street
- Torquay Union Street
- Plymouth Drakes Circus
- Bristol Henleaze
- Bristol Broadmead
- Yate North Walk
- Portsmouth Ocean Park Burfields Road
- Eastleigh Chandlers Ford
- Cheltenham High Street
- Shepton Mallet Townsend Shopping Park
Wales
- Llandudno Retail Park
- Cardiff Queen Street
- Chester Broughton Shopping Park
The scheme officially launches on Thursday the 24th of September 2020, and hopefully in the future it’ll be extended to even more locations. Here at BMD we love collecting Advantage Card points, they’re one of our favourites because the points never expire – find out more in our article reviewing the UK’s most popular beauty loyalty cards.
Boots isn’t just No7 and Revlon any more, they’ve started selling some seriously high-end and exciting brands like Fenty, TooFaced, Nyx, KVD and Huda Beauty. There’s never been a better time to start earning Boots vouchers, so why not get recycling!
Don’t go to Boots or too far away from a participating store? Here are some other stores and beauty brands that reward you for recycling.
