Running a business with sustainability at the forefront is central to everything we do at Mokosh. We have always used glass packaging, which can be easily recycled. But for years, I sweated over our plastic lids, pumps and droppers that had nowhere to go but to landfill. I researched all types of packaging, trying to find the answer.

The Solution

A few years ago, I was thrilled to discover Terracycle, an international organisation devoted to recycling difficult to handle waste. And skin care closures definitely fall into that category - lids and pumps can’t go to normal plastic recycling because they are made of different types of plastic, often mixed with other materials.

Recycling this way is simple: we buy one of Terracycle’s boxes designed for beauty product recycling, fill it with returned lids, pumps and droppers, and send it back to them when it’s full. They take all the components apart and separate them so that each  material can be fully recycled.

I was delighted to find this relatively simple solution - it keeps our plastic packaging out of landfill and waterways, while simultaneously reducing the need to manufacture more plastic.

Reusing our glass jars

Later, I began to wonder about our glass packaging. Glass recycling involves transporting it to a recycling facility, sorting the glass by colour, cleaning it, and then melting it at high temperature in a furnace so that it can be turned into new glass containers. In Australia, a lot of recycled glass is crushed and used in road construction.   

However, because glass containers can be cleaned and safely sterilised, I wondered whether instead of sending glass containers through an energy intensive process to recycle them, we could ask our customers to return them to be refilled. 

After meticulous testing, we discovered that we were able to completely sterilise our used glass jars, making them as good as new, and indistinguishable from a jar that had been newly manufactured. This meant we could accept used empty jars, then wash, sterilise and refill them. This conserves resources and further reduces our carbon footprint. For bottles, the process is more difficult: with our current methods we can’t confidently ensure they are effectively cleaned, and so for now, only glass jars are refilled in this way. We ask our customers to place their glass bottles in their local recycling.

Our Container Return Scheme

We have been running our container return scheme for a few years now, and we’re delighted that so many of our customers are taking part. We’ve made it free for our customers and as simple as we can. It just takes a little effort on your part to save the closures and jars, pack it safely so jars don’t crack, and send it back to us via your nearest post office.

Find out how it works here.

To all our customers who have taken part so far, thank you so much, we really appreciate the time and care you’ve taken to make our container return such a success. And I get to sleep better at night…

With much love,

Marion