New York (November 15, 2025) – This America Recycles Day, Sephora is celebrating a major sustainability milestone: collecting more than 100,000 pounds of empty beauty packaging and diverting it from landfills through its Beauty (Re)Purposed program. This sum is equivalent to roughly 6,000 shopping carts full of beauty empties.
Launched across all freestanding North American Sephora stores, in partnership with Pact Collective, in 2023, Beauty (Re)Purposed offers a convenient and comprehensive solution for beauty consumers looking to give their beauty empties a second life. With an estimated 95% of cosmetic packaging typically thrown away because it’s not accepted in most curbside recycling programs due to size constraints and mixed materials, Sephora’s Beauty (Re)Purposed program aims to simplify the process and provide consumers with clear directions on how they can help divert beauty packaging from landfills.
Through the program, customers can drop off their empties – regardless of where the product was purchased – at participating Sephora locations. The collected materials are then sorted and processed for reuse such as, carpet, pallets, asphalt, new packaging, or energy**, helping reduce waste and advance circularity in beauty.
Here’s how it works:
- Clean it out: At home, make sure the packaging is clean, unbagged, and free of liquid or product.
- Drop it off: Visit any U.S. or Canadian Sephora store* and drop your empties that meet Pact’s collection guidelines in the dedicated collection bin. To find a participating location, please visit www.pactcollective.org/locations.
- Close the loop: All done! Instead of being thrown away in a landfill, the beauty empties could become something else.
Beauty (Re)Purposed is part of Sephora’s ongoing commitment to its long-term sustainability goals, including providing practical solutions for consumers and the planet. With each finished product, beauty lovers help close the loop and build a more beautiful – and sustainable – future, one empty at a time.
To learn more about Beauty (Re)Purposed, visit sephora.com/beauty/pact-collective-recycling-program.
For more information, please contact: ExternalComms@Sephora.com
*Sephora at Kohl’s is not a part of the Beauty (Re)Purposed program
**Depending on volumes and contamination of empties collected for each eligible material
