I can’t stop thinking about waste and what to do with it. With over 180 billion beauty products produced each year and only a fraction of them recycled, beauty empties have a way of piling up. So how can you responsibly recycle empty beauty and skincare products? Read on to learn how to properly dispose of your beauty products so they don’t end up in a landfill.
Earlier this year I read Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future by Oliver Franklin-Wallis. Franklin-Wallis takes a deep dive into the global waste crisis and searches for the dirty truth behind a simple question: what really happens to what we throw away?
Spoiler: Waste is usually burned, buried, dumped into the ocean, or simply left to pile up. It continues to pollute our earth causing devastating effects to our environment and people. And the beauty industry is a large contributor through its packaging problem. Why are beauty products tough to recycle? Most are too small, contain too many mixed materials and are often made from plastics that can’t be recycled by a traditional materials recovery facility (MRF).
So what can you do?
Where can you recycle your beauty products?
There are a few organizations at the forefront of beauty recycling, including Pact Collective and TerraCycle. Pact is a nonprofit focused on the beauty industry’s packaging waste and working collaboratively toward more circular solutions in the sector. TerraCycle is a recycling company focused on developing solutions to recycle the unrecyclable. Both organizations have partnered with beauty retailers to recycle their beauty products through mail-in or drop-off services at popular retailers throughout the U.S. and Canada. Retailers include Sephora, Nordstrom, Winners, and Hudson’s Bay.
Find a Pact Bin to recycle your beauty empties in Canada or the U.S. Find a TerraCycle drop-off location in Canada or the U.S. TerraCycle has also partnered with L’Oréal on its Committed Beauty Recycling Program, which accepts empties from any brand. Canadians can find drop-off bins at participating Walmart, London Drugs, or Jean Coutu locations.
What products are accepted?
Once you’ve collected your empty cosmetics products, it’s time to drop them off at a collection bin in-store. Here’s what you can drop in the collection bins:
- Plastic and glass tubes, pots, pumps, sprays, and jars
- Lipstick, lip balm, and lip gloss tubes, cases, and caps
- Mascara tubes
- Eyeliner pencils and cases
- Eyeshadow and bronzer cases
- Foundation packaging
- Powder cases
- Eyeshadow and concealer tubes and sticks
Items to avoid dropping in a collection bin: Perfume, nail polish bottles, nail polish remover bottles, pressurized canisters (including aerosol cans), organics, broken glass, bio-medical waste, diapers, medication, sharps (including razors), and electronic devices.
What happens to the products after you recycle them?
Current recycling infrastructure is not perfect. Most recycled material is downcycled, meaning it will be made into a product that is of a lower value than the original item.
So what happens after drop off? Sorting facilities receive the empties and then separate the containers according to material types like plastic, metal, or glass. The old containers are transformed into raw format, which is repurposed into new products like shipping pallets, thermoform packaging, outdoor furniture, and more. TerraCycle is even creating its own product from the materials it collects like this stackable organization kit.
If you’re curious to see how the recycling process works, watch how TerraCycle recycles beauty products.
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