Those behind Boop hope to do what the ‘wonky’ fruit and veg ethos has done for food waste by repurposing some of the 90m beauty products discarded each year in the UK alone
The beauty industry’s eye-watering waste problem is enough to make your mascara run – but a new online marketplace is tackling the issue head on by offering cosmetic seconds at bargain prices.
Boop is aiming to do what the ‘wonky’ fruit and veg ethos has done for food waste by repurposing some of the 90m beauty products thrown away each year in the UK alone.
That’s the weight of 650 doubledecker buses and equates to 4,500 tonnes of moisturiser, 1,000 tonnes of mascara, and four Olympic-sized swimming pools full of perfume. A tenth of that waste occurs in brands’ supply chains and 6.2% of discarded beauty goods are down to overproduction.
“A huge number of beauty products are destroyed each year by manufacturers and retailers without ever hitting the market,” confirmed Boop founder Yasmine Amr.
“Consumers and brands are becoming far more conscious of sustainability – and consumers don’t really care if their product doesn’t look perfect or has older packaging.”
Amr’s background in law led to her working as legal counsel for L’Oréal. Being on the inside of the beauty industry means she has witnessed first-hand how red tape and business processes contribute to wide-scale waste.
Consumers don’t really care if their product doesn’t look perfect or has older packaging
“Throughout my career, I would have people come to me asking what to do about products that had printing errors, slow-moving items which they didn’t want to store, or obsolete items. These were products that were perfectly fine to use,” said Amr.
France has already banned the destruction of unsold cosmetics, and similar legislation is under consultation for the EU and UK. Meanwhile Boop’s research indicates that 95% of people would happily buy stock deemed surplus or imperfect due to a labelling mishap, damage or changes to branding.
Its online range features mid to high-end brands with discounts of up to 70% on products that would otherwise be destined for landfill.
Yasmine Amr, founder of Boop, has witnessed first-hand how red tape and business processes contribute to wide-scale waste
Three more ways in which wonky wrongs are being righted
Wonky fruit and veg pioneers Oddbox led the way with its farm-to-fork subscription box service, so much so that produce lacking in the looks department has become a supermarket staple.
Despite huge progress around unnecessary ‘best before’ labels on food, they still appear on everything from hand wash gel to toothpaste. Step in health goods reseller Love Health, Hate Waste, which offers discounts of up to 90% on past-it products.
Former UK prime minister Gordon Brown is behind the Multibank initiative which, like foodbanks, helps deprived families. Donations of essential household items such as bedding, clothing and toiletries, for example, are made up of surplus stock gifted by retail giants including Tesco and Amazon.
Images: Boop
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