The initiative, called Reselfridges Recycle, is now live in all Selfridges Beauty Halls across Birmingham, Manchester and London’s Oxford Street, enabling customers to return empty beauty and cosmetic items from any brand, including perfume and aftershave bottles.
Steve Carrie, Group Director at MYGroup, commented: “These products are used at scale but are typically binned after use.
“Through Reselfridges, we’re applying our established take-back solution in a department store environment, where even the hardest-to-recycle items can be captured at scale in meaningful volumes and recovered safely.”
Recycling fragrance packaging
Fragrance bottles are often excluded from kerbside recycling and in-store take-back schemes due to their mixed materials and the presence of residual, potentially hazardous contents.
Under the new scheme, customers can return fragrance bottles in full, including those that still contain perfume or aftershave.
Items can be deposited in Reselfridges collection boxes in-store, with customers asked to speak to a team member to collect their Selfridges Unlocked Key.
As part of the retailer’s membership programme, customers receive one Unlocked Key for every five items recycled, incentivising participation.
The nationwide rollout follows a trial at Selfridges’ Trafford Centre in 2025, during which the number of Unlocked Keys collected increased by 271% between September and November.
End-to-end processing at MYGroup’s facility
MYGroup will manage the full end-to-end collection and processing of materials returned through Reselfridges Recycle.
All items will be transported to the company’s specialist facility in Hull, East Yorkshire, where it holds permits to process hazardous and complex waste streams.
At the site, packaging materials and residual cosmetic products will be separated and recovered. Materials will then be returned to supply chains or remanufactured into new products through MYGroup’s ReFactory operation.
In 2025, the company became the first waste management business to join the British Beauty Council as a patron, supporting the Council’s plans for the 2026 Great British Beauty Clean Up by offering businesses a take-back solution for hard-to-recycle cosmetics.
MYGroup already operates established take-back schemes with a number of major retailers and brands, including Boots, Harrods (H beauty), Cult Beauty, LOOKFANTASTIC and Superdrug.
Carrie added: “MYGroup has been working with retailers for many years to make beauty take-back a practical, scalable cornerstone of the sector’s commitment to recycling.
“Through our schemes, we’ve now processed more than 40,000 tonnes of returned beauty and cosmetic packaging – success and experience that has helped shape this ambitious Reselfridges collaboration.”
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