How to Donate & Recycle Your Beauty Products
If you look at your vanity, are there some products that you tried once or used a couple of times, but didn’t end up falling in love with? Instead of just wasting perfectly good product, why not donate it to someone who could actually use it. Here are a few ways you can donate and recycle lightly used beauty products.
What to toss: Toss mascaras, creams or lotions that come in a bottle and that require you to dip your hand in them and anything that's been more than 50% used.
What to recycle: Check the packaging to see the recycling rules. If the product can't be recycled, consider upcycling it and re-filling with other product for travel or turning it into storage (a large jar can hold reusable cotton rounds, for example).
Look into TerraCycle: The national recycling program accepts virtually all makeup, skincare, and hair care packaging and makes sure each piece gets recycled through the proper channels. TerraCycle offers a few different ways to take advantage of its planet-saving services. One is the Zero Waste Box program. Individuals can purchase a box specially designed for beauty products and packaging. When the box is full, they return it to TerraCycle with a pre-paid shipping label for recycling. You can also drop off your #empties to a participating TerraCycle location.
What to donate: Anything that is gently used, but make sure to sanitize everything. Hairbrushes, makeup brushes, lipsticks, eyeliners, lipliners, and brow liners can all be sanitized. Clean your brushes thoroughly in warm water mixed with dish detergent. Run a Q-tip dipped in alcohol over your lipstick or chop off the first layer of the bullet. Sharpen pencils.
Where To Donate
Project Beauty Share
The organization "collects personal hygiene, cosmetics, and beauty products and distributes them through nonprofit organizations that serve women and families overcoming abuse, addiction, homelessness, and poverty." They accept lightly used products, but only from the following categories: powder eye shadows, powder blush, bronzers and highlighters, eye and lip liner pencils (but only the kind you can sharpen), liquid foundations in airless pump containers, and squeeze tube foundations. Anything else must be new. As far as skin-care and hair products go, anything that comes in a tub or jar must be new, but used products that come in pumps, tubes, and bottles are welcome.
You can ship donations to:
Project Beauty Share
2718 E. Sprague Avenue Spokane, WA 99202
Beauty Bus
The Beauty Bus Foundation provides in-home beauty treatment to men, women, and children whose terminal illness prevents them from accessing a salon or spa. Beauty Bus uses your donated unused and new beauty products in their “Beauty Bags,” which are given to patients around the U.S. The foundation accepts blushes, mascara, nail polish, hair dryers, straighteners, and more.
You can ship donations to:
Beauty Bus Foundation
2716 Ocean Park Boulevard
Suite 1062
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Share Your Beauty
Their mission is "to put a bit of sparkle and dignity back into the lives of women and teens in crisis." They accept new, unopened, unexpired cosmetics, hair and skin-care products, nail polish, perfume samples, and personal care items.
You can ship donations to:
Share Your Beauty
Family-to-Family
PO Box 255
Hastings on Hudson, NY 10706
Dress For Success
According to its donation guidelines, Dress for Success needs unopened cosmetics and toiletries with an expiration date at least six months in the future, plus new hygiene and grooming products. They’re also looking for packaged and unopened fragrances.