No.01
Lipstick Tubes
Twist them empty. Pop the inner cup out, rinse with warm water, and drop the metal shell into our brass-friendly bin. The plastic wand goes to the rigid stream.
aluminum · plastic
a pop-art love letter
to every empty lipstick, every spent compact, every promise of glamour reborn.
Twelve pop-art collectibles. Each one is a scrap of beauty waiting to live a second life.
Twist them empty. Pop the inner cup out, rinse with warm water, and drop the metal shell into our brass-friendly bin. The plastic wand goes to the rigid stream.
Mirrored shells deserve a final close-up. Pry the metal pan free with a coin, recycle the plastic case, send the magnet-mirror duo to specialty.
Wash the bristles, donate to the Wand Project for wildlife rehab, then recycle the tube as #5 polypropylene. One wand cleans a sparrow's feathers.
Glass loves a second act. Soak overnight to free the pump, recycle the glass, send the spring-loaded pump to the rigid plastic line.
Heat the pans gently with a hairdryer, the metal floats free of the plastic. Donate intact pans to school art programs.
Crystal-cut glass becomes a bud vase, an ink bottle, a tiny terrarium. The atomizer pump goes to the specialty stream.
Wash in soapy water, peel the label, dry. Glass jars become spice jars or seed savers. Plastic lids go to #5 collection.
Empty completely (shake test: silent = empty), do not puncture. Most metal recyclers accept depressurized cans in the steel stream.
Multilayer plastic films are notoriously hard. Mail to TerraCycle Beauty Empties, or save for store drop-off bins at certain pharmacies.
Hazardous waste. Bring to municipal collection days. Empty bottles (residue dry) can sometimes go in glass after the brush handle is removed.
Wood handles get a second life as plant stakes. Synthetic bristles go to upholstery scrap. Metal ferrules to the brass bin.
Trigger sprayers are a tangle of metal and #5 plastic. Pull the cap and spring; the bottle itself recycles in #1 PET. Reuse for plant misting.
Every milligram of microplastic you keep out of the bin is a milligram a parrotfish does not eat by mistake. Beauty for the ocean, the ocean for beauty.
“ The reef is the original makeup palette. Coral pinks, anemone corals, parrotfish blues, urchin violets. Recycling is the way we say thank-you back. ” — the recycle.makeup pledge