Small Switches, Big Impact: The Great British Beauty Cleanup
Lucy MeacherAt Eleria, we’re proud to celebrate and support The Great British Beauty Cleanup: launching on 2nd March and aligning with Global Recycling Day (18th March) and the United Nations International Day of Zero Waste (30th March).
For us, this campaign is about more than recycling bins and beauty empties. It’s about rethinking our everyday habits, questioning our reliance on single-use products, and making lower-waste choices feel achievable - not overwhelming.
While Eleria isn’t a traditional beauty brand, our values are closely aligned. We exist to challenge single-use culture within period care, and to advocate for reusable, circular solutions that are better for our bodies and the planet. Supporting The Great British Beauty Cleanup feels like a natural extension of that mission.
What is the Great British Beauty Cleanup?
The Great British Beauty Cleanup (GBBC) is a nationwide initiative bringing together brands, retailers, and industry professionals with one shared goal: to reduce the environmental impact of beauty packaging.
The campaign encourages collective action - educating consumers on kerbside recycling, shining a light on ‘hard-to-recycle’ items, and promoting in-store take-back schemes available across the UK. At its heart, GBBC is about making sustainable choices simpler, clearer, and more accessible for everyone.
The problem (and why it matters)
The beauty industry produces over 120 billion units of packaging every year, much of which ends up in landfill. Beauty packaging alone is estimated to account for around one third of landfill waste globally.
This isn’t just a beauty problem - t’s a consumption problem. Single-use packaging has quietly become the default, even when long-lasting alternatives exist. Campaigns like The Great British Beauty Cleanup help us pause, take stock, and rethink what we really need from the products we use every day.
So, what’s being done?
The beauty industry is starting to shift - reducing excess packaging, investing in refill systems, and embracing reuse. These changes take time, but there’s still plenty we can all do right now.
- Use it up, then clean it out
Love your products to the very last drop, then rinse and separate the packaging. Clean, empty packaging has a far better chance of being recycled.
- Choose the right bin
Kerbside recycling heroes
Glass, aluminium, aerosols, steel, paper, cardboard, and plastic bottles larger than 40mm.
General waste
Broken glass, aerosols, single-use wipes, plastic bags and wrappers, foil seals, mixed plastic/metal items, nail polish and remover.
Hard-to-recycle items
Minis (under 40mm), sachets, lids, pumps, skincare packaging, and make-up. These need specialist recycling - use the British Beauty Council map to find your nearest drop-off point, or take part in the BBco x MYGroup recycling initiative.
- Give your empties another life
Hard-to-recycle doesn’t mean the end of the road. When returned to participating retailers, these items can be transformed into new materials. Recycling, reimagined.
Why Eleria is getting involved
At Eleria, reusability and circular thinking are at the core of everything we do. While we don’t create beauty products, we do challenge the same issue the beauty industry is grappling with: our dependence on single-use items.
Single-use period products have a significant environmental footprint:
- Around 200,000 tonnes of waste from pads, tampons, and liners are generated every year in the UK.
- Approximately 2.5 million tampons, 1.4 million pads, and 700,000 panty liners are flushed down UK toilets daily, placing enormous strain on water systems.
- Period products are among the top ten single-use plastic polluters.
- One person’s yearly period waste produces 5.3kg of CO₂. Across the UK, that adds up to 8,692 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.
- Some pads are made from up to 90% plastic, containing the equivalent plastic of five carrier bags. These products can take 500 - 1,000 years to decompose, breaking down into microplastics that harm wildlife and ecosystems.
It’s heavy - but it matters. And it’s why we’re committed to making the switch to reusables feel easy, empowering, and guilt-free. One small change in your routine really can make a meaningful difference. Read our blog for more on why switching up your period care routine is good for you, and the planet.
