Taking action to combat the massive environmental impact of cosmetics and skin care packaging, four companies have teamed up to form Pact Collective, the first not-for-profit recycling program dedicated exclusively to the beauty industry. The creation and launch of Pact is driven by founding members Credo Beauty, MOB Beauty, Hudson’s Bay and Element Packaging.
 

The beauty industry generates an estimated 120 billion cosmetic packages annually–most made with virgin plastic and a very small percentage are successfully recycled. Pact’s mission is to provide a sustainable solution for hard-to-recycle beauty packaging, including plastic packages smaller than a yogurt cup, squeezable tubes, fragrance bottles, pumps, caps, and other common formats that are unlikely to be recycled in curbside programs. The collective will also focus on education, working to tackle misinformation and greenwashing as it creates greater circularity in the industry.
 
Pact is launching across North America with recycling bins available in 20 Hudson’s Bay stores in Canada and all 10 Credo stores in the US today, which is Earth Day. Hudson’s Bay plans to roll out to all 87 stores through 2021. The materials collected in the take-back bins will be sent to a recycling partner where they are sorted, cleaned and then recycled, upcycled or reused.

Pact will open the collective to other industry members later in 2021, with plans to scale. 
 
“The collective is powerful because we have representatives from across the industry who have come together to create a not-for-profit recycling solution. Pact will bring much-needed inclusivity and transparency to beauty packaging — from design to end-of-life,” said Victor Casale, co-founder and CEO of MOB Beauty and formerly of MAC Cosmetics.