A Gold Coast primary school has unveiled Australia’s first playground made with recycled beauty products after winning the Garnier Recycled Playground Competition which saw schools around the country recycle over 145,000 beauty products.

Garnier and global recycling partners TerraCycle ran the competition from October 9 to December 8 last year to encourage preschools and primary schools to collect and recycle empty beauty products of all brands, and raise awareness about waste and recycling.

Park Lake State School was the competition’s top collector and winner of the $45,000 recycled playground made with beauty product waste collected during the competition.

Garnier marketing manager Alexandra Shadbolt congratulated the entire Park Lake State School community on their efforts in recycling the products that were “otherwise destined for landfill”.

“Garnier is committed to sustainable practices and we are thrilled to have partnered with TerraCycle on this exciting project to encourage and engage students in the practice of recycling and sustainability,” she said.

Park Lake State School Principal, Ursula Carty, said the competition was driven by students who were very passionate about the environment and in need of new play equipment.

“The students at Park Lake are very passionate about sustainability and caring for the environment,” she said.

“By recycling all our non-recyclables, we are reducing the amount of waste ending up in landfill and enabling new materials to be made.

“This is a win for the environment and for our future.”

The empty beauty products collected by the schools during the competition were cleaned, shredded and melted down into hard plastic before being remoulded to make the playground.

According to Garnier, beauty product waste (such as that used skincare, haircare and makeup containers) are “technically” recyclable in Australia but the high cost of recycling the mixed-plastic items makes the process less attractive for recycling and manufacturing companies, and “as a result, most beauty product waste ends up in landfill”.

The Garnier Recycled Playground Competition is part of the broader Beauty Products Recycling Program sponsored by the L’Oréal Australia Group which allows all Australians to divert empty skin care, hair care and cosmetic products from landfill free-of-charge – and donates $0.02 for “each approved unit of beauty product waste received” to collectors for funding towards their school or nominated charity.

For more information about the Beauty Products Recycling Program which allows everyone to collect, recycle and raise funds for their school or charity, click here.