Return and earn! Lush UK double-up rewards for a week for customers returning their packaging – from May 28th to June 1st
From May 28th to June 1st, Lush will double the rewards for the Bring It Back packaging take-back scheme — from 50p per item to £1 — per qualifying full-size item in all Lush stores in the UK. Customers can choose to spend the money reward on their Lush basket in the store that day or collect the rewards in the brand new Lush Wallet feature on the Lush app to use later for in-store or online purchases. This is a thank you for helping Lush make sure their packaging gets recycled in the UK.
Initially introduced in 2021, the Bring It Back packaging returns scheme enables customers to bring back any full-sized Lush plastic packaging to their local Lush shop to be recycled. Sample pots are also included in the scheme for a smaller incentive of 5p, up to 10p during the time of the promotion. The returned packaging will then be sent to the Green Hub, Lush’s own UK recycling hub, where packaging is processed and sent to our UK partners to be remoulded into new black Lush pots or used as industry plastic feedstock material.
With the innovation of the Lush Wallet, customers will be able to drop their pots at any shop, any time, and save the rewards for their shopping moments, Lush experiences like spa treatments and online exclusives.
Since the introduction of the Bring It Back scheme, nearly 8 million items of plastic packaging have been returned to Lush globally. In the UK, in FY24 nearly 820,000 items were returned and processed by the Green Hub, that is nearly 20 tonnes of plastic.
Currently, customers are returning around 16% of the plastic packaging items we put on the market, our target is 30%. Hopefully this initiative will nudge customers to gather round all the pots and bottles they have at home, bring them to us and get into the habit of doing it more often!
What about Lush’s other return schemes?
Customers who bring their plastic packaging back to Lush can opt for a money-off on their next purchase, the credit to be stored in their new Lush wallet or exchange five full-size plastic packaging items for a fresh face mask. Lush also offers a Knot Swap scheme where customers can return their Lush labelled Knot Wraps (Lush’s reusable alternative to traditional gift wrap) in exchange for 50% off another Knot Wrap of the same size.
T&C’s of the Bring It Back scheme can be found here.
Why now?
Lush is the inventor of ‘naked’ cosmetics, which should still be the first choice of conscious consumers, however, many customers choose to take home products in our recycled pots and bottles. With 56% of bathroom products going unrecycled by consumers, and about 50% of the UK’s plastic packaging waste being exported, Lush wants to take ownership of their packaging and raise awareness with customers through the Bring it Back scheme to both collect more packaging and recycle it better.
About the Lush Wallet and Lush App:
The Lush Wallet is a digital wallet available exclusively in the Lush App for all Lush account holders, where they can combine gift card balances, top up credits instantly using a debit card, save Bring It Back credit for qualifying packaging, and pay easily in-store, via the app, or online.
Simple, seamless, and sustainable!
About The Green Hub
Lush opened the first Green Hub in 2015. Transitioning from segregating and managing waste in the yards of our 14 warehouse properties, to having our own dedicated waste segregation centre, ensuring we were creating value from these materials. This building included small scale plastic granulation, processing equipment and laundry facilities.
In 2018, following widespread news on UK landfill illegally being transported to Malaysia, Lush decided to widen the potential of our materials recovery, improve visibility and show accountability to staff and customers. We created the Green Hub 2.0, our commitment and investment into the circular economy.
The building is the centre of Lush’s investment in creating circular economies for waste, and gives the Green Hub team the opportunity to open the doors to our manufacturing campus publicly, to educate, inspire and collaborate with our community. At the Green Hub 2.0 we take responsibility for treasured materials that could be considered ‘waste’, reusing, recycling, repurposing, recovering and repairing, finding ways to slow the flow of ‘waste’ materials and creating circularity wherever possible.
The latest Green Hub report can be found here.
About Lush
Since establishing in 1995, Lush has been driven by innovation and its ethics. Creators of pioneering beauty products, one of Lush’s most well-known creations is the bath bomb.
Invented in 1989 by Lush Co-Founder Mo Constantine in her garden shed, bath bombs have become a global sensation – all hand pressed in Lush’s own manufacturing sites across the world, Lush sold over 21.2 million last year.
A beauty company with a campaigning heart, Lush is on a mission to create a product for every need and a cosmetic revolution to save the planet. The ultimate goal is to leave the world ‘Lusher than we found it’.
In August 2024, Lush reached £100 million in charitable giving, supporting grassroot organisations and activists through multiple programs since 2007. In FY23 Lush donated just under 1% of the company turnover to grassroots groups driving tangible positive impact, showing commitment to a long term giving strategy.
Today, Lush operates in 50 countries with over 850 shops, 38 websites shipping worldwide and a global network of native apps, broadcasting channels and digital communities in over 30 languages.
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