When black pots come back to our shops, they hitch a ride back to Poole, Dorset, with the same trucks which deliver fresh products. At the Green Hub (Lush's in-house recycling centre), the pots are chipped down, washed and dried in a machine called a granulator. The little pieces of plastic are then ready to be melted down and reformulated into new black pots - a part of the process the Green Hub hopes to be able to do in-house in the future with increased returns of black pots.
These shiny new pots are then ready to be filled with fresh product and delivered out to customers and shops (who can, of course, save, clean and return their pots once more). Returning your clean black pots in this way will contribute to our in-house closed loop recycling scheme, meaning we can melt down and reformulate these black pots again and again. You'll get a fresh face mask for your troubles - and we'll get another chance to reduce plastic landfill waste.
And it’s not just black pots which can be recycled in your local Lush store. Here’s a breakdown of the other kinds of material you could find at your local Lush - and how to reuse or recycle each one.
We use recycled PP to make black pots, bottle tops, lipstick tubes, powder make-up containers and some of the lids you’ll find dotted around the shop. Look for the label which tells you what can be returned for a fresh face mask! Shop blackboards and product labels are also made from PP - a virgin kind this time, but completely recyclable and reusable after use.
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