The beauty industry has a less pretty side: plastic waste. An Ulta employee highlighted the problem with a behind-the-scenes look at what’s happening in her store.

What is happening?

Brianna (@brixmireles), who has 15,000 followers, posted a video in July revealing how Ulta gets rid of products marked as “damage.”

@brixmireles it breaks my heart to ruin makeup but it’s so satisfying 😭 #ulta #ultaemployee #makeup #damages #beautyadvisor #satisfying ♬ original sound – speedz!

In the clip, Brianna is seen destroying eyeshadow palettes, makeup brushes and lip gloss tubes, even cutting some plastic packaging into small pieces before throwing them in a box – a practice that other Ulta employees also posted images of themselves.

“It breaks my heart to ruin the makeup,” Brianna wrote in the caption, to which one commenter asked, “Why can’t you keep all of this?”

“That’s how the store works,” Brianna responded with a shrug emoji. “We even have to cut the cords on brand new hair tools.”

“I wish Ulta could donate this instead of ruining new products,” another commenter said.

Why is this concerning?

Although damaged makeup carries the risk of contamination, many products appear to have minimal to no problems, raising the question of whether Ulta could implement additional policies to protect consumers while limiting wasted resources. and environmental impact.

The beauty industry is a well-known culprit of plastic pollution. According to Euromonitor International, manufacturers produced 7.9 billion units of rigid plastic for beauty and personal care products in 2018, as reported by Women’s Wear Daily.

The fact that Ulta reportedly asked its employees to cut the plastic into smaller pieces almost assuredly means the material will be sent to the landfill, where it will take decades, if not hundreds of years, to decompose.

What is Ulta doing to reduce packaging waste?

Ulta’s partnership with Pact encourages shoppers to clean and drop off their hard-to-recycle empty beauty containers, as the retailer aims to reduce the billions of packages that typically end their lives in landfills.

It also indicates on its website that it wants 50% of the products sold in its stores to be presented in packaging that is either recyclable, refillable, or made from bio-sourced materials by 2025.

Although The Cool Down couldn’t find any details regarding Ulta’s “harm” policies, as shown in the clip, support for waste reduction initiatives is promising. However, plastic recycling programs are notorious for low success rates, with the majority of items ending up in landfills or as unregulated waste, leaching toxins into our ecosystems and harming or killing wildlife.

Greenpeace went so far as to call plastic recycling a “dead end,” writing in a new report that its rates have actually fallen by as much as 5 to 6 percent.

What can we do more broadly to combat plastic waste?

One of the best ways to reduce plastic pollution is to ditch the material where possible. Many shoppers have already ditched single-use bags at the grocery store in favor of more durable cotton bags — a practice Ulta also suggests to people browsing its stores.

Another way to reduce beauty waste is to visit a Zero Waste store to find items like metal razors, lip balms in compostable packaging, bars of soap and more.

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