Recycling revolution: Amorepacific aims to recycle 100% of its empty bottles by 2025

According to the memorandum, the company is aiming to recycle at least 100 tonnes of empty plastic bottles for three years.

Additionally, it said it would increase its use of materials recycled from bottles for its own products and furnishings. The company aims to increase this by 10% in the first year, 20% in the second and 30% in the third.

The goal is to recycle 100% of its empty bottles and use 50% of them for products and furnishings by 2025.

Supporting green initiatives

Amorepacific began collecting empty bottles in 2003 under the Innisfree brand. According to the company, it has collected over 1,700 tonnes of empty cosmetic bottles as of 2018.

In 2014, it launched its eco-friendly corporate social responsibility initiative, the GREENCYCLE campaign, which uses empty cosmetic bottles and upcycles them into artworks.

Additionally, the company said it was studying various recycling possibilities to minimise its damage to the environment.

In March, Amorepacific announced that it was replacing all plastic bubble wrap with paper packaging, which are shock-proof despite being made of paper.

Last year, the company started using sustainably-produced paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) on the boxes of 500 different products.

The company has also switched to smaller, non-coloured boxes and uses paper tape over vinyl.

Additionally, the company has redesigned some of its products, such as the Mamonde Brightening Cover Powder Cushion, to reduce its plastic use.

The redesign reduced the weight of the product by 10.7%, which saved the company 0.26 tonnes of plastic.

Sustainability in personal care

Saehong Ahn, president of Amorepacific Corporation, said the partnership with TerraCycle affirmed its commitment to execute more eco-friendly initiatives.

"[The] plastic issue is now a common social problem which companies should also take part in. Amorepacific will prepare for the age of 'No Plastic' by reusing collected empty bottles and developing environmentally-friendly materials. Through positive cooperation with TerraCycle, we will make the Earth beautiful with our contribution to responsible consumption and production."​

Terracycle is a US-based recycling company that ‘recycles the unrecyclable’, such as cigarette butts.

The company has worked with major consumer goods manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever and L'Oréal.

Amorepacific is not the only personal care company stepping up its sustainability efforts.

In the same week, Colgate-Palmolive announced that its new recyclable toothpaste tubes had just been recognised by Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR).

With this new development, the company said it plans to update all toothpaste tubes under the Tom’s of Maine brand next year.

The company added that it plans to completely convert all toothpaste tubes under its brands to the recyclable version by 2025.