We buy products in packages which we often empty in the landfills. Going green involves having a stand to care for the environment and contributing less to its destruction.
If you are a skincare or beauty fan like me, then you would definitely have empties lying around. Finding new uses can actually save you money! Moreover reutilizing around the house can also help organize your collection plus not to forget it’s great for the environment! The less waste the better.
So what can we do with those empties? Lets check out some of the ways to repurpose skincare empties, creative ways to upcycle beauty packaging and recycle skincare empties with incentives.
8 Ways To Repurpose Your Skincare Empties
1) Keep empties as skincare/makeup travel containers
Rather than buying new skincare products every time you travel, why not use your empty containers and refill them with your favourite shampoo or body moisturiser. By reusing them, you’re preventing them from ending up in landfill and saving yourself a few pennies not having to buy new products to take away with you!
2) Refill
- Refill it with hand sanitizer and pop in the bag.
- Bring the empty jars and bottles along to zero-waste stores and refill them with laundry detergent, shampoos, conditioners, body washes, etc.
 |
| Source : Feelunique |
3) Save empty containers for DIY skincare projects, like body scrub, face masks, sea salt spray, etc
 |
| Source : LibertyLondon |
 |
| Source : LibertyLondon |
 |
| Source : Feelunique |
4) Use empties as storage
Try and reuse containers as storage for smaller beauty items like hair ties, scrunchies, hair clips, paper clips, cotton buds, tissues, safety pins, buttons, rings or earrings. Reusing them save them from being disposed of incorrectly and also keep your items organized.
 |
| Source : LibertyLondon |
 |
| Source : LibertyLondon |
5) Save jars and bottles for plants and flowers
- Wide-rimmed jars can be used to pot succulents, while taller, thinner bottles can make beautiful vases for flowers. You can paint them or even use washi tape to beautify them.
 |
| Source : Beautybay |
6) Create your own pre-soaked toner pads.
If you have an empty skin care container that’s big enough to fit cotton rounds, consider making your own pre-soaked cotton pads! Put in some cotton rounds or cotton balls, then fill up the container with your favorite toner or essence! Perfect for keeping on your dresser or throwing into your gym bag or even taking with you on a flight!
 |
| Source : Knoursbeauty |
7) Fill the bottle with fairy lights and place it on your bedside table.
 |
| Source : Foreo |
8) Scent your home with DIY home diffusers.
Make your own scented oil diffuser using empty bottles with the tips here.
Recycling Empties With These Beauty Companies
In United States, some eco-conscious brands offer internal recycling programs within their own facilities. TerraCycle, a private recycling business, works with Nordstrom for BEAUTYCYCLE, a free program that invites consumers to drop-off their beauty and skincare product packaging (regardless of brand) at in-store collection points for recycling, including items that are typically unrecyclable.
Other brands that have individual in-house recycling include Garnier, Burt’s Bees, eos, Herbal Essences, L’Occitane, Josie Maran, Deciem and Paula’s Choice, to name a few. These brands generally work with programs like TerraCycle to properly process waste.
In Singapore, we can recycle our empties with these 13 beauty companies. Lets check out beauty companies who reward us with recycling empties with them.
Return rinsed and clean empty Kiehl's bottles for recycling and be rewarded with stamps which can be used for redemption for Kiehl's products. Empties collected are sent to their recycling partner who has a National Environmental Agency approved Materials Recovery Facility where the recyclables are sorted, processed & baled to be turned into new materials.
In UK, return your empty Kiehl's products to unlock points and rewards where 1 empty rewards you with 10 points and 120 points unlocks a £10 voucher for you to use against 1 full price item in your next purchase.
Bring in clean and dried full-sized beauty products from L'OCCITANE or any beauty brands to be recycled with Sembcorp. Receive a reward with every 10 stamps. That means with 100 beauty empties recycled, you will receive 10 gifts!
At the point of writing, I have sent in 110 empties since early last year. Their staff are usually very diligent in checking if your empties are clean and dry before accepting them.
In US, beauty and skincare empties collected from L'Occitane are sorted and separated by material composition. The separated items are then cleaned, shredded, and made into new recycled products.
Reward for returning back your empty product from L’Occitane en Provence® or any beauty brand is a 10% off a new full size product*.
*10% off one full size product, valid only on the day of drop-off. Not combinable with any other offers.
Bring empty Innisfree bottles (essence, hair and body products made of glass or plastic) to stores and be rewarded with a generous $1 store credit with every empty bottle recycled. Maximum of 3 empty bottles per member per month.
RE:ERTH has partnered up with local recycling company Environmental Solutions (Asia) which has a unique way of recycling plastics. They neither require different types of plastics to be sorted, nor need your empty bottles to be rinsed as Environmental Solutions (Asia) converts these plastic into fuel, which solves two problems; generate less waste and create less reliance on fossil-based fuels.
Earn petal points for your empties which can then be accumulated to offset purchases. Personally, I really like their initiative as RE:ERTH is one of the few brands who looks for a recycling partner which reflects their dedication, commitment and transparency in sustainability.
Unfortunately, they have stopped collecting empties from other brands and now only collect empties from their own.
LUSH has a 5 Pot Program which encourages customers to save the black plastic pots that package Lush products such as face masks, moisturizers, shaving soaps, body scrubs, and more. Bring in five full-sized pots to the store, and receive a Fresh Face Mask of your choice in return.
In United States, old pots are returned to their supplier to regrind and remold them so a whole new batch of pots is born but I can't find any information from Lush Singapore website, however, according to The Smart Local, the empty pots are brought back to Lush’s factories where they are recycled and refilled for use as new batches of products.
The Body Shop launched the “Return Recycle Repeat” scheme, where customers can simply drop off their clean The Body Shop plastic empties ( like old bottles, tubs, tubes, jars and pots ) at any of the stores for recycling. Accumulate stamps for rewards.
Their recycling partner, Sembcorp®, will then collect the empty packaging to recycle or repurpose them into new items like park benches and playgrounds. You can read more about their sustainability efforts here.
Their NYRecycle Program incentivises customers to bring back their cleaned empty bottles and tubes in return for free gifts and discount vouchers. Applicable to all full size bottles and tubes where you earn 2 stamps for skincare items and 1 stamp for all other regular sized items with maximum of one gift redemption per month.
You can read more about the program on Simple Wellness.
MAC’s exchange programme allows shoppers to return any 6 primary packaging containers (e.g. empty compact cases, lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes) in exchange for a free lipstick of any colour through its Back to MAC recycling programme. You can check this out on their main site.
9) Origins
Drop your clean Origins empties in their stores at ION, Centrepoint and NEX. For every three empty bottles or jars, you will be rewarded with a deluxe sample (15ml) direct from the store. They also accept empties from other brands but with no rewards.
I have been dropping in my empties at the NEX branch for several years but they have neither approach me nor check if my empties are clean. I usually just dropped them off into the bin directly.
You can read more on their main site.
Return and recycle up to 5 empty bottles each time verified with the official su:m37° GREEN WITH SAVVY 2.0 sticker and be rewarded with instant rebates off your final bill at any of their counters. This campaign is valid till 31st May 2022.
I received this information via email as I was on their mailing list but strangely, I couldn't find this update elsewhere. Apparently, this initiative started since 2020, followed by the 2.0 version this year.
Clean, dry and residue-free empty plastic containers of 50ml and above with removable lids and caps can be dropped off at 5 Watsons stores ( Choa Chu Kang Lot 1, Jem, Parkway Parade, Plaza Singapura and Tampines Mall ) with stamps that can be accumulated to redeem rewards.
What is different about this campaign, is that, Watsons accept Household and Supplement bottles but unfortunately, this campaign will end on 22nd June 2022.
Return cleaned aluminium, glass, and plastic cosmetic packaging from ASEOP or other brands to any Aesop stores for recycling with Sembcorp. Pumps, springs, fragrances and room sprays are not accepted.
3 Ways To Pass It Along To Someone Else
1) Carousell
- List on the "free items" category
2) Telegram Groups
3) Olio App ( SG-based and Global )
Download this free sharing app for free food and products. I usually post my empty bottles and someone will pick it up for other uses. Popular ones will be dropper, mist and pump bottles although other types also get picked up but at a slower rate.
Opt For Refills
Refills use less packaging, hence producing less waste. It can also help you save money as its less expensive than buying the original pack.
I really like the option to refill my favourite products such as my holy grail cleanser in my empty jars and containers since I go through cleansers pretty quickly, however, there is none for now. I am already doing that for my laundry detergent, some body washes and body scrubs from our local zero waste stores.
That said, sanitation is a key blocker to the success of refillable beauty as many fear that their products may develop bacteria or be contaminated if they reuse them so commercial cleaning schemes can help with those fears.
Another blocker is convenience so for refills to really take off, the concept must be convenient. A promising initiative is Loop where they will collect empties, sterilise and refill them, before placing it back on shelf. Unfortunately, such initiatives are not available in Singapore as we don't have the facilities for that.
In United States, Many brands like REN, Brazilian NATURA, French Diptyque, and Los Angeles-based Bathing Culture offer refillable beauty products.
Others like The Conscious Beauty Co, sells hair and body care with a circular refill philosophy, Kjaer Weis with its intelligent refill system, while Beauty Kitchen has a "Return, Reuse, Refill" concept.
Purchase their refillable aluminium bottle and choose The Body Shop’s best-loved shower gels, shampoos, conditioners and hand washes. Once you’ve finished, give it a rinse, bring it back and refill it.
While I applaud The Body Shop in having refill stations, however, I believe everyone has a refillable bottle at home, so there is no need to waste another resource by having to buy their refillable aluminum bottle in order to partake in this campaign.
In the UK, two of their most loved products, Geranium & Orange Hand Wash (200ml) and Bee Lovely Bath & Shower Gel (295ml), can now be refilled in their stores. Return clean and dry original bottles with the label intact for a discounted refill, saving £2 per bottle.
3) L'occitane
L'occitane offers refills for several products such as cleansing foam, liquid soaps, hand wash, shower gel, shampoos and conditioners.
4) KOSE
Refill packs in the Sekkisei Clear Wellness are available.
5) Orbis
Orbis offers refill packs for their shampoo, conditioner, cleanser, lotion, etc. Check the full list on their website.
Some of the refills available in Sephora Singapore. Check out the full range of refills on their website.
7) Zero Waste Stores
Bring along your empty bottles and containers to refill products. A quick tip is to plan your purchases in advance by checking out their websites and bring along appropriate sized containers and jars in a bid to use your packaging and reduce unnecessary packaging.
- At The Social Space, there are refills like body wash, hand wash, shampoo, conditioner, etc.
- At Oasis Kitchen, there are refills for various products, including cleansing oils, nail polishes, etc.
- Everything in Scoop Wholefoods can be refilled in your own bottles. Check out what they have in the beauty and bath section.
- Similarly, everything in Source Bulk Foods welcomes one to bring their bottles to purchase what they need. Check out the beauty section.
They provide refills for soaps, shower gels, shampoos and conditioners. Also can request for their mobile refill stations to drive to your house on the first Saturday of each month.
I spent several weeks compiling all the information I could scoured online and I hope it benefits you. After using a product, you can drop off the empties at the brands shared above, or upcycle it to be something useful. And if you have a favourite which offers refills, then opt for that.
Related
And please do me a little favor and share this post with others, for there's a good chance that it will help to make this world a little greener.
No comments
Post a Comment