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Where You Can Donate Your Empty Skincare Bottles
We’re all skincare and beauty junkies here, and surely, over the years, we’ve amassed a collection of empty skincare bottles. Toners, serums, essences — all these things come in bottles, whether plastic or glass, and really, what do we do with them once they’re all out empty?
We can admire them and give ourselves a pat on the back for finishing a bottle; after all, not every skincare item gets finished up to the last drop. But after that, we’re left with nothing but an empty container.
Instead of throwing it all away at once, a good thing to do with our skincare empties is to recycle or repurpose them. They may not have a purpose anymore in being a skincare container, but they can still be recycled.
We’ve listed down a couple of places where you can donate your empty skincare bottles to be recycled. Save your skin and the earth at the same time!
Where can I donate my empties?
Got several or maybe a whole army of empty bottles? Worry not, for here are a couple of places that are willing to take them! Five of them accept any bottle regardless of brand, while two places are brand-specific. Check them out!
Junk Shop
No, this isn’t a brand or anything of the sort. We’re talking about your local neighborhood junk shops here. You’ve probably driven by one of these places or heard someone on the streets calling “Plastik, dyaryo, bote!” Junk shop boys — and junk shops — buy and collect scrap for very cheap. Some junk shops only take certain materials such as metal or paper, but a lot out there take bottles and other things as well. If you’ve accumulated a whole ton of empty skincare bottles, you can try your luck at your nearest junk shop.
Plastics by Manila Automat
If you have numerous plastic bottles of skincare empties, you may want to try to donate it to Plastics by Manila Automat. This startup is a small studio based in Katipunan, Quezon City, and they create homewares from recycled plastics. The upcycled homewares range from coasters, bowls, candle holders, planters, and a whole lot more. They can even create stools completely made of recycled plastics! The studio accepts HDPE2 and PP5 plastics as donations. To donate, simply message them on Instagram to work out details and a dropoff schedule.
Green Haven Scrap Materials Trading
If you have skincare and beauty empties that are glass bottles, Green Haven Scrap Materials Trading will accept them from you. Aside from glass bottles, Green Haven also collects juice boxes, milk boxes, PET bottles, newspaper, and paper scrap to recycle. The organization regularly announces pick-up dates in certain areas for recyclables; the only thing you have to do is to thoroughly clean and rinse your bottles and have them ready for pick-up.
Trash to Cash by SM Supermalls
Looking to earn a little money while recycling? Mall giant SM Supermalls has a Trash to Cash Recycling Market initiative that may be right up your alley! The project was born as SM Supermalls aim to “educate the community about the importance of responsible solid waste management.” Anyone, from customers to mall tenants, can bring their recyclables in designated Trash to Cash areas in select SM malls.
The recycling market is held every first Friday and Saturday of the month in all SM malls nationwide, except for SM Makati and SM Cubao. They accept plastic and PET bottles, tin and aluminum cans, cartons, paper products, as well as metal cookware and kitchen items. To know their schedule, you can check out the SM Supermalls website.
Humble Sustainability
Recently decluttered your home and found that you have a lot of items that can still be reused, along with your skincare empties? Humble Sustainability is an initiative that may be able to help you out! In an effort to help reduce clutter in homes, Humble Sustainability believes in circular living, a mindset in which items no longer used by others can be brought back into circularity through recycling or upcycling.
Humble accepts any and all items, from plastic or glass bottles, all the way to worn-out clothes, toys, and even an old non-working television set! All items that Humble takes in will be reused, recycled, or upcycled with the help or sustainability partners. To donate to Humble, simply book a collection through their Instagram account and they’ll come to your house to collect your items for free.
Lush
Popular beauty brand Lush is known for its cruelty-free, handmade, and vegetarian-friendly products. Did you know that Lush also has a sustainable packaging initiative? If you’ve accumulated five or more empty tubs of Lush products, you can bring them to any nearby Lush store and they’ll accept your empties to recycle. In return, you’ll receive a free face mask from Lush. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask us.
Innisfree
Korean brand Innisfree is popular for their eco-friendly and natural products, ranging from skincare to cosmetics. They’re quite affordable, too. Innisfree has an eco-recycling program where you can drop off empty Innisfree skincare containers in a box found inside their stores. This program is also being done in Korea and in all their branches in other countries. The Innisfree empties will then be sent to Innisfree facilities in Korea to be recycled or upcycled.
FINAL NOTE
We hope that we were able to help you out in decluttering your empty skincare bottles from your beauty shelves! Do remember to clean and rinse your empty bottles first before taking them to the aforementioned places and organizations for recycling. Let’s all continue to recycle and repurpose our items to help our dear planet as it’s the only one we can live on. Stay green, stay safe!
Ira Arellano graduated with a degree in Multimedia Arts from the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. When she’s not busy writing, Ira uses her remaining free time fawning over groups with too many members, reading three books simultaneously, crying over animated shows and fictional people, and being salty over her lack of gacha luck.
