I have been on an early spring cleaning binge recently. One of the most guilt-inducing categories to clean up has been my toiletries. With clothes, you can convince yourself (and sometimes you’re right) that someone else will wear them and get joy out of them. There’s so many options for secondhand fashion thankfully: Poshmark, ThredUp, Goodwill, and other thrift stores, your local Buy Nothing group or local person that distributes items among the unhoused, or more fun – a clothing swap party. One of my friends hosted an amazing swap party for her birthday recently, and it was so satisfying to arrive with a bag of unwanted clothes and see other people like them, and to leave with just one new sparkly top that I really love and am excited to wear. With books, there’s a way to rehome them in little libraries and through NGOs like the Prisoners Literature project (which mails your books to prisoners). Alas, but Toiletries — used and expired toiletries have only one place to go – landfill. And even there other than taking up space, they will leach their degrading chemicals and microplastics into the world’s water system. My carrier bag of expired and barely-used products wasn’t just a personal guilt trip – it was part of a larger environmental crisis.
In addition to the environment, consider the costs in space in your home, the mental load of clutter and the impact on your wallet encapsulated in the statistic that the average American woman owns about 40 makeup products but only uses 5 regularly1. In this blog-post I trace the origin of some of these items and strategize how not to create so much waste next time.
1. Freebies
Corporate freebies and freebies from other venues like conferences, fairs and airlines were responsible for about 30% of my waste. I was throwing them away because I don’t want to be putting random lip balms that some corporate buyer chose on my lips any more – that phase of life is over. I have my own preferred brands.
Tips
→ Don’t pick stuff up at career fairs, city fairs or whatever other events you attend unless you actually see it fitting into your daily use patterns. This applies beyond toiletries: most of us have too many battery banks, baseball caps, stress balls, lanyards, pens, notepads and tacky plastic bracelets that we’re never going to wear from all the events that we’ve attended
→ Leave the airline pouch on the seat totally unopened and may be even hand it back to the air steward so they can use it with the next passenger
→ When you have an option on corporate swag, just opt out. Perfectly fine to think “I know my company offers some corporate-branded birthday or holiday gift but I just don’t need it so I won’t take them up on it”
2. Absurd Quantities
I’m done buying items because they are BOGO or some other crazy bundled offer. A lot of the times when you think you’re saving money, you actually aren’t as you’ll realize when you throw away extra product.
Tips
→ If you can’t use it before the expiry date or are just trying it, consider buying a smaller pack even if it is less cost-effective on the SURFACE
–> If the item you want is on a BOGO offer and you want it because of other features e.g. this Organic Kids Multivitamins I got for my son recently, then buy it and list the extra item on your local Buy Nothing group/offer it to your friends — do this within a day of purchase so that it doesn’t sit on your shelf or in some cupboard running out the clock on its expiry date
3. Sales or ‘It’s cheaper over here” so I’ll stock up
I threw away a really old tube of Vicco Turmeric, an Indian brand cream that I used God-knows-when – 7 years ago? For years now, I have not liked the texture or smell of the brand. It would be somewhat understandable if that was the only tube I’d tried and discarded, but I fear back in the day, in my “oh things are cheaper here, let’s stock up” mindset, I bought a few tubes of this product when I was in India.
Tips
→ Don’t assume you’ll be stuck on one brand forever, especially if you like experimenting, variety, and/or are going through different hormonal and skincare changes in your life. Also, flying excess products from one country to another is not great environmental conduct. It’s one thing if you’re going to use it, it’s quite another if you are flying it for it to basically go to landfill in another destination.
4. Gifts
This is a harder category to control because it’s what other people get you with love in their hearts and good intent. I don’t end up tossing them as often (usually people get me nice things) but I often have excess quantities of items because of gifting, or just slightly unnecessary items like a lavender night balm that I use a tiny bit of every night because someone got it for me. I think I could sleep just the same without it, but since I have it, I use it. I’m not sure it justifies the materials, effort and money purchasing it for me to feel ‘whatever’ about it.
Tips
→ Ask people not to get you gifts. E.g. on my last birthday invite, we specified “No gifts please”. To make it even more compelling you can even detail the WHY, like for my son’s bday we said “We have too much stuff already”, so it was clear we weren’t just being polite or modest, but we genuinely don’t need 30+ more toys in our house from everyone who comes. The harder part can be fighting this tendency to over-gift yourself with others. I’ve decided unless it’s very clearly “I thought of you”, just giving a gift for the sake of giving a gift doesn’t feel like an environmentally responsible way to conduct myself.
5. Stuff I bought myself without thinking much
This is a very frustrating category. It’s when you waste money on products when if you’d thoughtfully considered the evidence you may not have. Not all of this waste can be eliminated. But I’ve noticed I have shopped in the past out of boredom, self-soothing because of work-related stress, cultural pressures and norms whereby you self-talk “I haven’t bought anything in a while, I deserve it”….when it’s actually perfectly ok not to buy anything in a while and may be more rational. How odd is it that we keep buying stuff that is not groceries every week for the on average 50 years+ of consumerism that we are on the Earth for?
Tips
–> Think through things a bit more before the point of purchase: If I generally don’t like fragranced items, why would this one dry shampoo be an exception? If I wear mascara once every six months (my case), then is it worth wearing it at all? The statistics on mascara are particularly alarming: only 1 in 5 consumers throw away mascara within the three month time frame that is recommended.3 I’d never even paid attention to the expiry date until researching for this blogpost.
Small power is still power
Little things over just one lifetime add up, and over millions of people make a big impact. For me, even if one fewer dolphin or turtle is strangled on some junk that ends up in the sea because I was a bit more thoughtful than our culture demanded of me, I count that as a win.
What are your environmental hacks, wins, tips and tricks? Which category do you find the most problematic to declutter without guilt? What’s the oldest expired product in your bathroom cabinet right now? How do you handle well-meaning but unwanted gifts? Comment below! I am reforming, not yet reformed, so I have much more to learn…
References
1 “The Number of Makeup Products the Average Woman Owns Is Just Plain Shocking” Good Housekeeping, March 27, 2017 https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/makeup/a34976/average-makeup-products-owned/
2 “How beauty can rethink use-by dates” Vogue Business, July 12, 2022 https://www.voguebusiness.com/beauty/why-beauty-brands-are-selling-near-expired-products-use-by-dates
3 “I am the 80%: Some Statistics About Makeup Hoarding” Fun Things To Do While You’re Waiting, September 28, 2015 https://funthingstodowhileyourewaiting.com/2015/09/28/i-am-the-80-some-statistics-about-makeup-hoarding/
4 “Beauty Industry Environmental Impact” CleanHub Blog, 2023 https://blog.cleanhub.com/beauty-industry-environmental-impact
