A new BBC Three documentary, Beauty Laid Bare, has exposed the environmental damage caused by the £450bn global beauty industry, revealing that the vast majority of cosmetics packaging is not recycled.
Despite consumers’ best intentions to recycle empty moisturisers, lip glosses and concealers, only 9% of the world's plastic waste has been recycled since 1950. Much of the rest ends up in landfill, is incinerated or litters the natural environment, including oceans.
The programme follows four people investigating the industry's challenges. In San Francisco, they visited a recycling plant where campaigner Shilpi Chhotray from Break Free From Plastic and ecology expert Martin Bourque explained the problems. Black plastic cosmetics – notoriously difficult to recycle because it absorbs the light used to sort materials – often ends up in landfill or incineration.
Back in the UK, Stuart Foster, chief executive of recycling charity RECOUP, told the BBC that small items such as lipsticks and lip glosses are too tiny to be processed by standard recycling machinery. These products are frequently incinerated for energy, which he described as “not as good as recycling”. Cosmetics containing microplastics and glitter also pose a threat as they leak into the environment.
Make-up artist Chloe from Belfast admitted feeling guilty: “Most of the stuff that I use probably isn't being recycled.” Yet the documentary stresses that the onus should be on corporations, not consumers. Shilpi Chhotray urged people to “push these cosmetic corporations to do better” by contacting brands on social media.
Innovations such as refillable lipsticks, launched by a UK beauty company in 2018, offer a partial solution. However, Stuart Foster noted that recycling plants also need to adapt to handle smaller items. The series reveals the stark reality behind the glossy façade of the beauty industry.
