Origins Recycles Your Old Makeup Cases
Take your old makeup containers to Origins! Credit: Origins
Here's the thing: most of those makeup cases are made of weird, unrecyclable plastic. So even though there are increasing numbers of great companies, like Physicians Formula, who offer compostable packaging, clearing out the your old makeup can result in a wastebasket full of random plastic compacts, lipstick tubes and eye shadow palettes headed straight to the landfill.
And here's the solution: in this month's Self Magazine I saw an ad for the Return to Origins Recycling Program. They will actually accept your old makeup containers, and take care of recycling them responsibly, or sending them to an energy recovery facility, where they can be incinerated in a furnace with strictly controlled emissions. They'll take any brand, not just their stuff!
Here's how it works: Bring your empty containers to any Origins store, excluding counters in Nordstrom stores, anywhere in U.S. They do the rest!
Sure, it's not perfect. They don't take sponges, applicator wands or sample sizes. And the process of cleaning out those tubes and tubs still uses up resources, and creates some waste. But it's a step in the right direction, and a great display of environmental leadership from a company with a solid green reputation.
This is the only program like this, at least that I've heard of, although it's similar to the Aveda Caps Recycling Program, where they accept #5 plastic caps and recycle them into new caps, diverting them from the waste stream.
It's pretty awesome to see (relatively) small beauty companies leading the way in with these initiatives. It will be even better if it inspires some bigger companies -- with a larger reach and more resources -- to start similar programs. In this case, I'm sure Origins and Aveda would be delighted to have the competition!
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