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So many of us are trying so hard to be our eco best selves when it comes to running our households; trying to use less water, and buying less clothes, but it always seems so difficult to know how to recycle bathroom beauty products. Here are some top tips to make this task more manageable.
Why do we find it so hard to recycle bathroom beauty products?
Here in the UK, we consider ourselves to be very aware when it comes to the environment, however, NIVEA has carried out some new research which revealed that only half (48.97%) of us always recycle bathroom beauty products.
The study suggests that this isn’t because we don’t want to, but actually that the main barrier to bathroom recycling is confusion. Whilst we are trying to recycle our bathroom plastics, almost one in four Brits are put off by the fear of doing it wrong.
There is widespread confusion about what can and can’t be recycled, and also what the different recycling labels on beauty products actually mean.
The NIVEA survey revealed that, only one in three (35.08%) know what the ‘widely recycled’ symbol means (image below), while a quarter (26.70%) have never seen it before.
How to recycle bathroom beauty products
For Recycle Week (16th – 22nd October) and beyond, NIVEA is encouraging us to become our own “Binfluencers” and to feel more confident in our understanding of recycling practices, in particular, how to recycle bathroom and beauty products:
Little Steps Big Strides
NIVEA believes that if we can make what to do about recycling easier to understand, then our small changes can collectively make big differences. If we can recycle bathroom and beauty products more effectively, collectively we can make a big difference.
Learn Your Labels
Find out what products can and can’t be recycled
Here’s the widely recycled label on this NIVEA bottle:
Unfortunately, not all beauty and bathroom products can be recycled, but knowing what can and can’t be recycled will certainly help clear up confusion and enable you to do the best job you can.
You should recycle these bathroom beauty products
- Most plastic bottles and pots including shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, moisturisers, body exfoliators and so on can be recycled in your usual recycling bin (rinse out the bottles when they are completely empty and replace the lids)
- Aerosols can also go into your normal recycling bin when empty (make sure they are completely used up)
- Glass containers can potentially be re-used, however, if this is not an option, be assured that glass jars can also be recycled along with your recyclable plastic bottles
Bathroom products that can be partly recycled
- Makeup palettes usually contains magnets and mirrors that aren’t recyclable, so those parts need to be thrown away separately
- Glass foundation bottles can be recycled, but if they have a pump, remove that and dispose of it before rinsing the bottle and recycling
Bathroom beauty products that can’t be recycled
Here are some of the products that can’t be recycled:
- Nail varnish can generally not be recycled due to the ingredient content within the formula
- Makeup brushes are not recyclable
- Bottle pumps are not recyclable so make sure these are detached from the bottles and disposed of in general waste before the bottles are popped into the recycling
Make it Easy
To make bathroom recycling less of a challenge, put a recycling bin in your bathroom or hang a bag behind your bathroom door so you don’t forget and then you can gather them together and put them into your green box when you have built up enough.
How to recycle bathroom beauty products top tips video
NIVEA’s sustainability commitments
As well as helping to reduce the confusion around how to recycle bathroom beauty products, NIVEA has also pledged to:
- Reduce plastic wherever possible,
- Recycle plastic as much as possible
- Replace plastic when it makes sense
- Encourage customers to reuse packaging
By 2025, NIVEA is working to achieve:
- 100% of packaging to be refillable, reusable or recyclable
- 50% reduction of fossil-based virgin plastic
- 30% recycled materials in plastic packaging
For more information on NIVEA’s approach to sustainability, visit this link.
NIVEA do one of the best affordable eye makeup removers ever. Read about it in: Best Eye Makeup Remover on a Budget 2023.