Why I’m starting to get annoyed at beauty upcycling hacks that tell you what to do with your empty skincare and makeup packaging.
As a lover of scented candles, I’m no stranger to upcycling hacks. I’ve repurposed candle jars as brush holders, pencil jars and the occasional planter. I even use Pat McGrath Lab’s obnoxious plastic sequins as photo props in the occasional IG pic. But lately I started to think that the beauty community’s willingness to plunge into the weirdest repurposing hacks masks other issues.
Do you own a craft store?
My issue isn’t only the fact that for a lot of upcycling hacks you need the supplies of a mid-sized craft store (which I don’t). But that opens up a whole other issue. Sure, you can spray-paint all those skincare pots to make cute little planters or storage containers. Is that sustainable, though?! From the buying to the (im)possible recycling of the spray paint – you see where this is going.
Recycling is bloody difficult
Well, it is. The smaller the container, the more difficult, in fact. The more compounds the packaging has, the more difficult. The darker the packaging, the more difficult. In the end, only around 22% of plastic packaging will get recycled into new products (numbers for EU states). So, yeah, I guess it’s fair to say that recycling is difficult, and that the industry is really, really thankful when new materials, new technologies, and new companies come up that seemingly make recycling easier.
Let the consumer sort it out
Hey, don’t get me wrong: I’m thankful for that. Terracycle ftw!1 and it’s bloody amazing that companies like Seed Phytonutrients developed paper packaging that’ll hold liquid shampoo and survive in your shower.
But my BS radar perks up when I see companies like Foreo and Beautybay promote upcycling and repurposing hacks, because that neatly makes the customer responsible for what’s happening when a product is empty/unusuable. (Foreo though does give you other options to recycle their silicone face brushes.)
We own a lot of stuff
There’re a LOT of pinterest boards dedicated to upcycling/repurposing hacks and DIYs, and Allure lately gave a Reddit thread about upcycling The Ordinary glass bottles its own breathy article gushing about ‘genius’ ideas about repurposing the dinky glass bottles into hot sauce containers or using them for plant propagation purposes.
(Fun fact of the day: glass recycling in the US is more or less non-existent with numbers of 33% of the 10 Mio. tons of glass discarded every year. It’s different in most EU states – around 90% – but not the UK.)
The case for a more mindful consumption
While those apothecary-style bottles and Diptyque candle jars certainly have their appeal: how many brush/pencil holders or vases do you actually need? (If they fill a hole in your life, awesome, you do you!)
In the end, it mostly comes down to this: you’re turning waste you don’t need into stuff you don’t need. If that isn’t a case of more mindful consumption, I don’t know what it is.
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