Cosmetics and skincare don’t come in large sizes, strictly speaking. You use a little, it comes in a 50-150ml bottle, and then you need to replace it. These bottles are almost always made of plastic, and every new purchase leads to another one appearing and contributing to your carbon footprint and plastic waste. So what options do we have to reduce this? There are a couple of ideas popping up in businesses that sell cosmetics and skincare, and they aim to incorporate the mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle.
Reduce and Reuse Your Containers
Cutting down on the containers is your first step to making more sustainable cosmetics choices. You can purchase glass pots or dispensers which can contain any of your cosmetics. If you’ve gone through the extra step of making your own cosmetics you can put them in these containers too and have little to no impact environmentally, too. The best thing is you only need to purchase these once – there are no repeats every month. If you don’t want to buy generic jars, you can purchase from a company that packages their items in glass packaging and bottles – this is easily cleaned and reused.
Find a Refill Station
When you’ve purchased a reusable container, you can then take it to any store that will give you products on a mix-your-own basis, or from refill packs. The refill packs might be made of plastic, but they’re usually less resource-intensive or more easily recyclable. This also brings into the equation the second “R” of the reduce, reuse, recycle motto. Some of the stores and suppliers even let you formulate your own products, including adding your own scents to them or making custom products for your skincare requirements.
With the rise of sustainability as a priority, some people also make their own cosmetics such as blushes, eyeshadows, or lipsticks, and all of them can be made at home without needing to create more waste. If you can make them at home once, you can simply repurchase the ingredients (such as lip balm, or colour pigment) and make them again. Some companies, such as Lush, also have a policy of giving you one free refill for every so many empty containers that you bring to them.
Recycle, if nothing else!
If you can’t keep all of your cosmetics and skincare in your reusable jars, you can at least pick companies which will consider this problem before they actually sell you the product. Lush, for example, handmake all of their products and sell them in 100% recycled plastic packaging, and have a bring-in scheme to encourage you to bring back your containers, so they can be disposed of ethically. Garnier, a large producer of skincare, also partners with Terracycle to help consumers dispose of their used cosmetics packaging.
When you look into the options, making your cosmetics and skincare sustainable takes a few steps, but the end result is a much less harmful impact due to your self-care regimens.
