Did you know that 50% of people don’t even try to recycle their empty containers as it is deemed “inconvenient”? The so called incommodity results in 2.7b plastic bottles of solely bathroom waste hitting landfills every year. But beauty product packaging is specially confusing and tricky to recycle. That’s why in this blog we are going to talk about how to properly recycle your beauty products. 

Check municipal recycling regulations

It is very important to make sure you know your cities’ legislation and recycling possibilities so you follow the correct rules. In case you don’t know how to check this information, you can always use resources such as EARTH911, Recycle Coach or How2Recycle. 

Some tips you have to take into account are recycling arrows. These arrows don’t mean that the packaging can be easily recycled. According to s TerraCycle’s resident beauty industry expert Gina Herrera, you have to pay attention to the number inside the triangle: the packages that contain number 1 or 2 are usually the type of plastics widely recyclable in the curbside recycling programs. If your cosmetic products have these two numbers you can deposit them in the plastic container. 

What if you don’t find any information?

If you have a used package with no instructions on how or where to recycle, luckily there are companies that are offering solutions to avoid waste. Terracycle has partnered up with Nordstrom and have created Beautycycle, a free program in which consumers can drop off their empty packages regardless of the brand (L’ÓREAL, GARNIER, Herbal Essences…) and will make sure that they are correctly recycled. In fact some of these big brands work together with TerraCycle to properly process waste. 

“Beauty packaging sent in to TerraCycle for recycling will be shredded, cleaned, and sorted by plastic type,” explains Herrera. “The plastic shreds will then be melted and formed into small plastic pellets that can then be molded into a wide range of plastic products like plastic lumber, decking, and playground equipment.”

There are also other programs such as The Back to M.A.C which was created in 1990 would exchange customers’ 6 empty packaging containers for a new product (lipstick, lipgloss or a single eyeshadow). 

In Germany deodorant spray cans were also collected. The recycling programme R’cycle!by Unilever and drugstore chain “dm” also benefited children here: almost 800 bicycles could be made from the recycled aluminium for charitable institutions.

Mono Material recycling

The easiest type of packaging to recycle is mono material, the one that is made of one only material because at recycling plants they don’t need to separate the different materials. The separating material process is usually the hardest one: if the materials aren’t well split and are cross-contaminated, they can’t be reused and therefore become waste. 

If your product is made of one only material like plastic, glass or cardboard you can simply rinse it and toss it directly into its respective recycling bin. You don’t need to remove labels or sleeves from the product since it’s done with special heated machines at many MRFs. It is important that you always empty out any excess of the product because you ensure that chemicals don’t end up in waste streams. You can simply rinse the packaging with water.  “When something is contaminated with residual liquid, not only can you not recycle it but it ruins other recyclables,” says Calvin Lakhan, PhD, co-investigator for York University’s Waste Wiki project. A study done for Environment and Climate Change Canada reports that in Canada, we throw away 87% of plastics.

What can’t be recycled?

Aside from the technicalities of location, there’s also the fact that many makeup products cannot be recycled. The top culprits are anything with a mirror, pump, applicator, or magnet, and makeup brushes, too. “There’s not a pump in the industry that’s recyclable,” Āether Beauty founder Tiila Abbitt previously told Refinery29.

As hard as it sounds, there are products that cannot be recycled since there isn’t any machinery prepared and aren’t accepted at recycling plants. Here you have a more detailed list:

Small products for example, all travel and portable beauty products can’t be recycled 

Dark packaging can’t be recycled since they can’t be identified by MRF machines.

Other products that contain: mirrors, magnets, makeup brushes, sheet masks and packets and squeezable tubes.

Which cosmetic brands are offering recyclable and reusable solutions?

As a customer, the best thing you can do in order to ensure that you are going to be able to recycle or reuse properly, is to buy products from brands that believe in sustainability and offer eco-friendly solutions. Some examples of brands that have worked with Molpack in order to develop their sustainable packages are the following: 

Isdin: from Molpack we have worked with Isdin in order to help them fabricate recyclable products and constantly re-design their packaging to minimize use of materials and natural resources.

Cantabria Labs is also a cosmetic brand that is working on sustainability through eco-friendly solutions in packaging. Their aim is to improve the quality of life through the development of activities that take care of the environment.