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Sorting cosmetics packaging in the bathroom – caps, pumps and mixed materials
Published 6.10.20264 min read
A single cosmetics container can include plastic, metal and glass. This practical guide shows you how to empty and sort the most common types of bathroom packaging.
When sorting bathroom packaging, you’ll often come across a bottle with a pump, a jar with a lid made from a different material, or a tube with some product left inside. You don’t need to identify every part by its material label. Start by asking: is it packaging, what material is it made from, and do any parts come off easily?
This guide covers everyday household cosmetics and personal care packaging. Sorting instructions for packaging may differ from disposal instructions for the products themselves, and containers that are still pressurised or contain traces of hazardous substances need separate handling.
1. Use up the contents
Before sorting, squeeze or pour out any remaining product and use it up. A small amount of leftover product doesn’t usually mean you need to wash the packaging thoroughly. Rinki advises that packaging placed in plastic packaging collection must be empty; it doesn’t need to be clean, as long as it doesn’t cause unpleasant smells at home. If a container is hard to empty, such as a toothpaste tube, use up as much as you reasonably can. There’s no need to cut the tube open. Rinki: sorting cosmetics packaging
2. Remove any parts that come off easily
Place plastic bottle caps, lids and pumps in plastic packaging collection separately if they come off easily by hand. The same principle applies to any other easily removable parts of the packaging. There’s no need to spend time forcing parts off or taking packaging apart with tools.
For example, a pump bottle may have a plastic bottle and a pump made from several materials. Remove the pump if it comes off easily, and put both parts in plastic packaging collection. If a part won’t come off without a struggle, sort the packaging according to local guidance or check with your waste management provider.
3. Sort plastic bottles, jars and tubes as packaging
Empty shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and liquid soap bottles are plastic packaging, as are many cream jars and cosmetics tubes. They belong in household plastic packaging collection. Squeeze out any remaining contents and unscrew the cap if it comes off easily.
Packaging can contain different types of plastic, but when sorting household waste, you generally don’t need to check the plastic identification code. What matters is that the item is plastic packaging. Don’t put plastic items that aren’t packaging in this collection, such as a broken washing accessory or another bathroom item.
4. Check the type of glass packaging
A glass cosmetics bottle doesn’t always belong in glass packaging collection. Ordinary glass bottles and jars can be sorted as glass packaging, but cosmetics packaging containing opal glass, for example, cannot. Opal glass is a pale, milky glass used in some cosmetics packaging. Check the glass packaging sorting instructions to see whether that type of glass is accepted. Remove the cap or lid if it comes off easily, and sort it according to its material. Kierratys.info: glass packaging
If a glass bottle has a metal pump or a plastic dispenser, remove it only if it comes off easily. Sort removable parts by material. If you can’t take it apart by hand, don’t break the bottle to separate the parts.
5. Take care with aerosols and medicines
Hairspray and other pressurised containers don’t belong in ordinary plastic packaging collection if they are still pressurised or contain traces of hazardous substances. Take them to your local hazardous waste collection point, following local guidance. Don’t puncture or burn a pressurised container.
Medicine packaging may contain both packaging materials and medicine residues. Follow your pharmacy’s and local authority’s disposal instructions for unused medicines and medicine residues. Sorting empty packaging and disposing of medicine are two separate things.
6. Make sorting easy
Set aside a small space in the bathroom for empty packaging, and take it to your main household sorting area once it’s empty. If you keep packaging for a while before taking it out, make sure it doesn’t start to smell. If needed, wipe empty containers with a piece of used paper; there’s no need for unnecessary washing.
Rule of thumb
Empty the container, remove any parts that come off easily by hand, and identify the main material. Ordinary empty plastic cosmetics packaging belongs in plastic packaging collection, but check the separate guidance for glass, aerosols and medicine residues. If you’re unsure about a container, your local waste management service can help.
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