L'Occitane encourages greener packaging choices with Green Day Weekend

Since its inception in 1976, L'Occitane has favoured sustainable packaging options that can be re-used, refilled of recycled. The brand, which is known for its French skin and haircare products is celebrating its achievements to date this upcoming weekend.

From 26 to 29 May, L'Occitane will be celebrating its fourth Green Day Weekend, where it encourages consumers to switch to more sustainable packaging options.

Over the past three years the brand has introduced more and more sustainable packaging options. For example its eco refill pouches, are now available for 27 products across skin, body care and haircare, up from 11 in 2019. This system, where customers re-fill their existing bottles with new product, uses on average 85% less packaging and saves 200 tonnes of plastic every year.

To make this system more convenient for customers L'Occitane has also introduced Refill Fountains in selected boutiques across the UK and Ireland, where customers can refill products.

L'Occitane's refill pouches

The brand has also made strives when it comes to recycling, partnering with TerraCycle, which specialises in recycling ‘hard-to-recycle’ waste, for an in-store recycling system. Since the beginning of their partnership in 2019, the initiative has saved 143,000 units of plastic packaging from being placed in landfill sites.

For those customers eager to forgo plastic packaging altogether, the brand launched its 100% recycled and recyclable aluminium "Forever Bottles", which can be topped up with its eco-refill products - as well as its Solid Shampoos, which launched in 2021.

L'Occitane's mission to encourage more recyclable packaging first started with founder Olivier Baussan, who launched a return system for glass bottles, so they could be recycled locally in Nice. In 1992, the brand further created a program called “L’action Mistral”, which was dedicated to promoting recycling and the recovery of plastics, trying to convince the public and public authorities of the need for sorting.

This year during the Green Day Weekend the brand will donate £5 from every eco-refill purchased to UK marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage. The charity works on a variety of environmental causes, including plastic pollution and climate change, as the charity continues its fight against plastic pollution.

With around 20 tonnes of plastic being thrown into the ocean every minute, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a key aim for L'Occitane is to ensure that no plastic is single use.