Same as the Old Toss

Ask Umbra on (gasp) throwing stuff out 10

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Q. Dear Umbra,

About a year ago I made the whole body switch to organic and all-natural shampoos, body lotions, makeup, etc. In an attempt to stop my packrat-like habits, I want to know, what do I do with all of my old chemical-laden bottles and tubes? I can’t bare to just throw them in the garbage knowing that I could have recycled the plastic bottles, but if I recycle the bottles, that means I will have to pour the contents down the drain which flows into our lake affecting the wildlife—the reason why I switched to all natural in the first place! Please help!

Frettingly,
Carlee S.
Niagara Falls, ON

A. Dearest Carlee,

beauty treatmentI’m supposed to be relaxing!Also Dearest Many Others with Confusing Trash Around the House. I have filled a 42-gallon trash bag with recent letters about vexing unwanted items: cosmetics, pill bottles, cookware, shampoo, floppy discs ... fortunately for me, my trash bag is digital, and seems to vaporize when I hit the happy button.

For non-virtual objects, however, I wish you all to follow some very basic steps. The first step is to admit that you are powerless to prevent accumulation of a certain amount of garbage, no matter how earnest your intentions. Then we get to skip the fearless moral inventory and go straight to making an inventory of which items it is possible to recycle or reuse.

There are two main substeps at this point. One is contacting your local trash management information source and finding out if your particular garbage is toxic, recyclable, collected by a local agency, etc. Many agencies have an annual or more-frequent household hazardous waste collection day, and some accept cosmetics and the like. The second thing you can do is search on the internet for people recycling your item; perhaps someone wants old VHS tapes, and if you are willing to ship them to Iowa, the problem is solved.

If you make these efforts and are thwarted, then feel free to move on to the next step: Throwing things out. In your case, Carlee, it is better to throw the tubes and bottles out than to pour their contents down the drain. Better still would be to use the products up. You could use them as intended (one more wash with the last dribs of your old shampoo will not be the end of the world), or find a new purpose for them at a site like AltUse. And then you can recycle your containers.

But people, listen: We will have garbage. Unless it is electronic, officially toxic or hazardous, or recyclable, we will need to throw it out. The only way to have fewer things to throw out is to bring fewer things into our lives. We must do the best we can at that, and accept that we are not perfect, or we will go insane. I am going to now model this behavior and throw out all the letters about throwing things out.

Valiantly,
Umbra

 

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Send your green-living questions to Umbra.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

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  1. Seriously?! Posted 10:26 am
    22 Jul 2009

    Umbra--Two comments:1] Garbage is NOT inevitable.  Please address the growing Zero Waste movement to see how we can work to eliminate the waste of almost all products and packages we use, virtually eliminating the need to "Throw things out". 2] A reminder that "out" is usually a landfill, sometimes an incinerator.   These centuries-old  technologies are beyond out-dated.   Pouring down the drain is a slightly faster route to our waterways than the inevitable route through the landfill leachate into sewer systems...or leaking through the liners directly into groundwater.  

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    1. Briace Posted 11:16 pm
      29 Jul 2009

      i think whenever any body read this hopefully those will be happy.
      thanks for giving the information. 
      Resveratrol

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  2. oohlookasquirrel Posted 2:30 pm
    22 Jul 2009

    If you're going to put bottles with "product" in them in the garbage, maybe you could combine all the icky products you're not going to use around the house into a few bottles, so you can rinse the rest of them and recycle them.  Maybe you could even stick the products that are destined for the garbage in some sort of container that you can't recycle in your area and was going to end up in the garbage anyway.  I'm no expert on landfills and waste water, but if you have a styrofoam takeout container or a plastic cereal bag that was going to end up in the landfill anyway, you might as well secure some other stuff in it that was destined for the landfill.  There's no good place for these chemicals, but a secure home in something that won't degrade for a very long time sounds like a good option to me.                  
    I have boxes of old toiletries too, from when my skin wasn't as sensitive as it is now and from before I started worrying about animal testing and the like.  I've tried giving away stuff and letting family members and friends use up my old shampoos, but I still have a big box of the stuff.  Who wants half empty, brittle plastic containers full of Bath and Body Works lotion?  I did, however, make an effort to clean out some of the prettier and sturdier containers from old makeup (tins from lip balm, old compacts, etc.) so they could live in my "useful little containers" box, which is great if you need to carry a few cottonballs soaked in eco-friendly toner, or a small sewing kit, or a travel-sized portion of your new favorite shampoo.You might try giving away some of the more appealing stuff through Freecycle.  Yeah, your old body lotion might not be something you want to use anymore, but you might find someone in the neighborhood who was going to buy something like it anyway, thus keeping that person from buying one more new bottle of whatever icky product it was.

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    1. Briace Posted 11:33 pm
      29 Jul 2009

      This site has good information.ThanksResveratrol ultra 

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  3. katmainomad Posted 2:56 pm
    22 Jul 2009

    Unless you are allergic, I agree with the use it up (or find someone else to) then recycle the container. There are plenty of us out there that are willing to take on someones old, half-used products and use them. Then figure out how much of the gunk (eco or otherwise) you can do without. Buying bottles of products for beauty is pretty un-eco to begin with, given the plastic bottles (which use a lot of energy even if recycled) and other ingredients. If it makes you truly happy, then by all means indulge, but some ideas include: Use less each time, use less often, use one product for many purposes (e.g. Biokleen hand dish washing liquid can be bought in 5 gallon buckets, used to fill smaller reused bottles, and cleans dishes, clothes, hair, skin, floors, etc excellently! and the 5 gallon buckets are useful). Less hot showers/baths can mean less moisturizer, and a big jug of olive oil can provide the moisturizing you need...etc. I'm not there yet, and have to suck it up and throw out the non-recyclable containers I sometimes buy food in, but zero-waste IS possible, and is reachable by not buying stuff (that will become waste) in the first place.

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  4. bethyp Posted 9:53 pm
    24 Jul 2009

    Oh my gosh!
    Just tonight I was cleaning my toilet for my boyfriend's visit (he won't notice, but I still do it) and wondering how many more times I will have to use this horrible Comet-like stuff that my landlord left when I moved in before it's gone and I can get some nicer, eco-friendly cleaner.  I'd really like to switch, but I feel like using it in small amounts now will help the inevitable pollution down the road...and I have it so I might as well use it instead of buying more stuff...It still sucks though...I just want it gone...Thanks for the tips, and at least making me feel a little bit okay with some of my eco-guilt.  I have a pretty good grasp on creating minimal waste now, but it's all these things from my past that are haunting me! I now buy almost everything I can in buik and use multi-purpose stuff (olive oil is great!).  Another cool one?  Dr. Haushka's deodorant bottle (glass) as a little vase for some flowers in my bathroom!  It's fun finding new uses for things.  Some things just aren't nice though...

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  5. SaltyWench Posted 6:23 am
    28 Jul 2009

    Don't throw all your old lotions, etc, away & don't recycle empty containers either ... donate them (full) to local homeless shelters, battered women & children's safe houses, women's resource centers or other good causes. Someone will be grateful for those toiletries and they can recyle the empties after they've recycled the contents.

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  6. DaleD Posted 10:53 am
    28 Jul 2009

    Great commentary full of common sense. The issue isn't going away (no pun intended), and some future discussions could also include mental health perspectives. Could it be that the way we treat our home/planet is connected to the way we view our selves/bodies? To use some of the jargon, we've got an epidemic of hoarding and cluttering, which you may be experiencing yourself, or you may see it in your neighbors' cars, garages, and homes. Some of this behavior is tied to personality disorders, in particular obsessive-compulsive disorder. There is help for this, beginning with some assistance reducing the clutter, and up to and including treatment (with or without drugs) for the mental health problem.   

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  7. Username's avatar

    Username Posted 8:11 pm
    29 Jul 2009

    Some good points in there, keep us updated.

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