Recycling Bathroom Products: Rinse. Recycle. Reimagine.
I swear to you that this post is not sponsored in any way. I really do believe in this initiative and hope that you’ll help spread the word, too!
Even though Earth Month has come to an end, there is still so much we can be doing every day to keep our planet happy. While I make it a point to recycle paper, plastic, cans and beverage bottles regularly, I’ll admit that I never even thought about all of the personal care items in my bathroom that I throw out willy nilly! When I empty a shampoo or cleanser, into the bathroom trash it goes… and then straight to the landfill. How could I have overlooked such a massive amount of my household waste?
Turns out, I’m not the only one who has let recycling beauty, bath and body products slip through the cracks. The new Unilever Bathroom Recycling Index recently discovered that the average American has eight products housed in plastics bottles in their bathroom at a time, but only a third make it a point to recycle them. Add it all up, and that rounds out to almost 600 million bottles that are filling landfills per year. Personally, I’ve got 10 plastic bottles sitting in my shower alone, ack!
In order to close the recycling gap in the home, Unilever (the company behind some of my favorite drugstore brands like Dove, Simple Skincare, Suave, and Pond’s) has teamed up with Keep America Beautiful to launch the “Rinse. Recycle. Reimagine.” program to help encourage people to be proactive in reducing our footprint by recycling bathroom products.
This is just a piece of Unilever’s larger Sustainability Plan which aims to lessen their environmental impact by incorporating as many recycled materials as possible to their product packaging by the year 2020, on top of fostering other partnerships for positive contributions to concerns like deforestation, water, sanitation, and sustainable agriculture.
According to the Unilever Bathroom Recycling Index findings, almost half of Americans are unsure what qualifies as recyclable, and more than a quarter don’t believe their empty bathroom products really contribute to making new things. To find out what you can recycle in your bathroom and what your products can become, check out the I Want to Be Recycled website.
So what can you do to help (after you go raid your bathroom trash for recyclables, of course)? Snap a pic of your bathroom recyclables on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #ReimagineThat and #Sweeps for a chance to win reimagined recycled prizes, from Unilever beauty packages to products made form recycled plastics like an umbrella or a backpack. Learn more about the giveaway and extra tips on being green in the bathroom on Unilever brightFuture site.
Have you been recycling your bathroom products?
I honestly suck at recycling bathroom products. I always recycle kitchen stuff but never bathroom. I’ll definitely make an effort after this reminder!
I will admit that I don’t know what happens to my bottles. I probably just toss them in the trash too. I didn’t even think about it.
We recycle everything at home.
I always recycle the bottles from the bathroom, even the minis. I get SO MAD when people in this house (who shall remain nameless but that I’m married to) leave empty bottles laying around or worse, throw them in the bathroom trash. It’s like 20 steps to the back door where the recycle bin is!!
Such a great post! I had to get another recycling bin because thats how much we recycle in our house!
It’s good to be reminded of this! I often forget to recycle my bathroom stuff, but it also seems like I never actually empty anything out, either! lol.
I recycle and upcycle!
I have a trash can in my bathroom that’s under a counter that’s just for recycling. At the end of 1-2 weeks I put it in the big bin. I think this is such an important issue.
That’s a great idea. I should definitely get a second bin specifically for bathroom recyclables. I was throwing them away daily! D:
I try to do this with my products to start, I wash them out anyways just habit. Also I clean them out so I can blog about empties and such! I find with some products it’s hard todo because they cap’s are fused to the bottles
That’s true! but great job thus far 🙂
I recycle ev-er-y-thing!
I usually recycle them, but not always 🙁
I always recycle, even products in the bathroom. I make it point to put them aside so I won’t throw them in the trash.
That’s awesome Cindy!
I love that you’re recycling!
Oh, I feel proud that I’m good about this! I actually will toss a used plastic bottle out of the shower onto the floor, so that I will pick it up and take it to recycling vs. putting it in the trash!!
I’m going to have to start doing that!!
I try to be good about recycling but I know that sometimes it slips and all goes in the wrong bag. We stopped with the water bottles so that’s half the battle eheh
I recycle when brands offer that option, but otherwise I’m pretty clueless. I know I could be more diligent about this.
Sometimes the recycling symbol can be hard to find. I’ve found hidden ones in products underneath the cap, or even just raised in the same color as the bottle itself!
i recycle everything especially since just about everything now is recyclable. In our town, we are limited to one trash can but unlimited recycling.
Same here. We get a huge mixed recycling bin, plus we’re welcome to put out extras on the curb.
That’s awesome, Rachel 🙂