Should you use up cosmetics you already have before buying new, safer products?

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:41:31 +0000

When do you use up products you already have, and when do you either try to return them or just opt to throw them away?

I got that question today. Here it is in full, along with my answer:

“I would like your opinion. Before I heard you on Martha Stewart on Sirius, I was purchasing my normal stuff. I would do recyclable as much as possible, didn’t know much about free trade or organic or all that. Then I bought your book. Now, I’ve read your book and would like to do what I can to protect myself and the environment. What would you suggest I do with several unopened cosmetics, or the rest of already opened cosmetics? I’ve got half bottles of shampoo and conditioner that I would gladly replace with organic. I’ve got unopened bars of Neutrogena soap and unopened bottles of Neutrogena acne wash. I’ve got unopened Neutrogena cosmetics (powder, under eye concealer). Should I use up what I have already opened? Dumping it and just recycling the bottles doesn’t sound right. If you would share your opinion, I’d appreciate it.”

Here’s how I responded:

“Is there any chance of returning the unopened products? The easiest would be to take them back to the store where you bought them. I called the Neutrogena customer service line ( https://www.neutrogena.com/contactus.asp?mainVal=as ) and they said that as long as the products are unopened, the store should take them back, even if you don’t have a receipt.

“Re: the opened and half used shampoo, conditioner and soap, I would go ahead and use them up, since if you throw them away you have probably a worse effect because you’re dumping more concentrated materials down the drain or in the dump than diluting them somewhat with water. Also, these are products that don’t usually penetrate your skin. There is the least health risk in using soaps that only stay on your body for minutes, as opposed to products like make-up and deodorant that are designed to penetrate the skin over time.

“With the opened cosmetics, honestly, I have an old cosmetics bag that I’ve unwanted dumped lipstick, blush and mascara into. I no longer want to put these products on my body, but I don’t want to throw them away either. Someday, I’ll include them in my city’s hazardous waste pick-up. They don’t really qualify as hazardous material, but that just seems better than tossing them in the trash (though, if you didn’t want to bother with that, you could double bag them and throw them away. Most things don’t degrade in a landfill, so they’d probably remain intact, especially since they’re also in a case).”

Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks.

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Why Recycling Is Worth It

admin — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:46:58 +0000

Still wondering why you should bother recycling your aluminum cans? Just ask Greg Wittbecker. He’s the director of Corporate Metal Recycling for Alcoa and a big proponent of boosting the paltry amount the U.S. recycles (52% of cans) to 75%.

What’s the big deal? Greg says it’s all about energy and waste disposal. “If we could recover and recycle 75% of the aluminum cans being currently tossed into landfills – 600,000 metric tons of aluminum – we could save 1286 megawatts of generated electricity. That’s the amount produced by two coal fired power plants, and consumed by two aluminum plants,” says Greg. “Replacing this production with recycling would keep 11.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being generated and released into the atmosphere.” It would also reduce the amount of mercury going into the environment, since power plants emit polluting mercury when they burn coal.

Why is recycling so efficient? According to Alcoa, recycling a ton of aluminum uses just 5% of the energy required to make virgin metal. Every ton of recycled aluminum that Alcoa uses saves about 14,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that the average American household consumes 920 kilowatts of electricity per month. Consequently, using 1 ton of recycled aluminum as opposed to 1 ton of virgin aluminum would make enough conserved energy available to power an American household for over 15 months.

Despite the compelling energy savings that accrue from recycling aluminum, we Americans are not recycling as much as other countries. Compared to our 52%, consider how well the nations below are doing:
• Brazil 94.4%
• Japan 90.9 %
• Germany 89 %
• Global Average 63%
• Western Europe 57.7%

Why the diff? On top of the “throw it away” mentality common among American households, many communities don’t make it easy for citizens to do the right thing. More towns and cities need to offer curbside recycling programs or convenient recycling centers. Retailers that sell canned beverages could help, too, by setting up recycling centers on their premises. Eleven states already put deposits on canned beverages to insure that the cans are returned to the manufacturer. The rest should follow suit.

To find locations where you can recycle nearby, check out earth911. And don’t forget to contact your city administrator or solid waste manager to urge them to make community recycling easier for everyone in your community.

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Should you use up cosmetics you already have before buying new, safer products?

Why Recycling Is Worth It