A Gold Coast primary school has won a playground made from recycled beauty products in the Garnier Recycled Playground Competition which saw schools around Australia recycle over 145,000 empty beauty care products.
Garnier and global recycling pioneers TerraCycle ran the Garnier Recycled Playground Competition from October 9 to December 8 to encourage preschools and primary schools to collect and recycle empty beauty products of all brands, and raise awareness about waste and recycling.
Park Lake State School was the competition’s top collector and winner of the $45,000 recycled playground made from beauty product waste.
Garnier marketing manager Jacqui Forman congratulated the Park Lake State School community on their efforts “in recycling an amazing 14,700 units of empty beauty products that were otherwise destined for landfill”
“Garnier is committed to sustainable practices and we are thrilled to have partnered with TerraCycle on this exciting project to encourage and engage students in the practice of recycling and sustainability,” she said.
The competition runners-up were Colyton Public School in Mt Druitt, NSW, and Main Arm Upper Primary School in Main Arm, NSW, who won $4500 worth of prizes between them.
The empty beauty products collected by schools will be cleaned, shredded and melted down into hard plastic, which will be remoulded to make a playground for Park Lake State School.
In its operations, TerraCycle’s goal is to create materials that can be used as a sustainable alternative to virgin materials and plastics, which require more crude oil in their production.
TerraCycle Australia & New Zealand general manager Jean Bailliard said the company had been really inspired by Australian schools’ commitment to recycling in this program, and by their hard work in raising awareness about waste and sustainability.
“The level of community support for local schools has been phenomenal,” she said.
According to Garnier and TerraCycle, beauty product waste (such as used skincare, haircare and makeup containers) are “technically” recyclable in Australia but the high cost of recycling the mixed-plastic items makes the process less attractive for recycling and manufacturing companies, and “as a result, most beauty product waste ends up in landfill”.
The 2017 Garnier & TerraCycle Recycled Playground Competition is part of the broader Beauty Products Recycling Program sponsored by the L’Oréal Australia Group, which includes brands such as Garnier, Maybelline, L’Oréal Paris and La Roche-Posay. The program allows all Australians to divert empty skin care, hair care and cosmetic products from landfill free-of-charge.
Additionally, for each approved unit of beauty product waste received, collectors earn $0.02 per item for funding towards their school or nominated charity.
The Beauty Products Recycling Program is ongoing, so schools and the community can continue to collect, recycle and raise funds in 2018.
For more information about the Beauty Products Recycling Program, visit garnier.com.au/green.