The Body Shop Canada Continues to Expand Its Ambitious Refill Program

In Canada, the beauty retailer has prevented more than 90,000 plastic bottles from going into circulation by helping customers refill their favorite products.

TORONTO, March 27, 2023 /CNW/ -- The Body Shop is continuing its work bringing its 'refill revolution' to stores across Canada through new in-store stations and product offerings.

In February, The Body Shop expanded its refillable offerings beyond hair care, shower gels and hand soaps to include a new makeup product, the Peptalk Lipstick, which comes in a refillable case made from 100 percent recycled aluminum (sold separately). This collection is enriched with Community Fair Trade Shea Butter and available in 20 shades, including nudes, reds, pinks and purples.

Additionally, throughout 2023, The Body Shop is opening seven Changemakers' Workshop concept stores throughout Canada to empower customers to spark change, including doing their part to reduce plastic waste by participating in the brand's refill program. These stores are designed with sustainability and the local communities they serve in mind, and are thus adorned with upcycled and reclaimed materials, installations from local artists and information about local causes for customers to support. Refill is a prominent aspect of the Changemakers' Workshop stores, and the program has proven to be even more popular at these concept locations.

As a certified B Corporation, The Body Shop was founded on the belief that business should be a force for good?and that every effort toward a more sustainable future matters. In 2021, the beauty retailer announced globally an ambitious five-year plan to roll out refill stations in the majority of its stores and set aggressive targets to save 25 tons of plastic per year through the program. Refill stations are now available in 800 stores around the world, 91 of which are in Canada accounting for 88% of the Canadian estate.

"We want our customers to understand first and foremost that they can be changemakers?and that even small individual acts, like refilling your shampoo or shower gel in a reusable container, can have a big impact on our planet," said Hilary Lloyd, VP of marketing and corporate social responsibility for The Body Shop North America. "The climate crisis is the greatest risk facing our future, which is why we call on beauty lovers everywhere to use their purchasing power to embrace a circular economy."

Every year, the beauty sector generates billions of pieces of plastic waste that end up in landfills or the ocean. The Body Shop's refill program allows every individual to help drive change, because every bottle counts. In 2022 alone, the brand's global refill program prevented more than half a million plastic bottles from entering the environment. In Canada, The Body Shop has diverted two tons of plastic, the equivalent of 90,000 bottles, from being wasted.

Since refill stations launched in Canada less than two years ago, 40 percent of The Body Shop's customers now choose refill over the same product available in our standard packaging.

"We are happy to see customers embrace The Body Shop's hard-working, natural ingredients and ambitious sustainability agenda," Lloyd said.

The beauty retailer also is addressing recycling with its Community Fair Trade Recycle Plastics partner, Plastics for Change. The Body Shop works with waste pickers in Bengaluru, India to remove plastics from entering the world's largest waterways while providing livable wages and better working conditions in an informal sector that is often volatile and discriminatory. Since The Body Shop began its partnership in 2019, Plastics for Change has collected 4,409,245 pounds of plastic waste which equates to 100 million plastic bottles.

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ABOUT THE BODY SHOP

As a B Corp business, The Body Shop is committed to ambitious social and environmental targets. Earlier this year, it established a Youth Collective to help amplify youth voices within its own business. The Body Shop Youth Collective is formed of 10-12 people from inside and outside the business, all aged under 30. They will advise The Body Shop Executive Leadership Team with the views and voices of young people.

The Body Shop invests heavily in activism and has a dedicated activism team, focused on research and tactics, operating around the world. Long before activism was an industry buzzword, The Body Shop has pushed for change where other brands saw risks. It has mobilized its global collective and campaigned for over 20 years on issues such as the rights of indigenous peoples, animal rights, sex trafficking and the burning of the Amazon rainforest.

For more information follow @thebodyshopnorthamerica on Instagram or visit, thebodyshop.com.

CONTACT: Brooke Buonauro, [email protected], 212-715-1576

SOURCE The Body Shop