TIP! Your cosmetics containers are a problem!

Today’s tip: As you get more beautiful, the earth absorbs your cosmetic trash and gets uglier. You’re like Dorian Gray, and the earth is the portrait.

March 25, 2015; 6:00 AM • by Susan Howson

Our daily TIPS! will enhance your life, we’re pretty sure. Have a tip you think Richmonders would love? Let us know!

It’s OK to love makeup and skincare. I, for one, am fascinated by the whole industry. I get a trillion samples, love to try all of them, and can often be seen with my trademark Too Much Eyeliner look in the morning and Mascara All Over My Face in the P.M. Who cares! It’s fun!

But holy moly, does all that cosmetic packaging and container waste add up! And a ton of it does not fit into our municipal recycling guidelines! I started saving mine, just to see how much crap I was putting back into a landfill. See below! So much crap!

You’re in luck, beauty fans. You can take empty cosmetic containers of ANY brand to any Origins store (find one near you) and they’ll recycle it for you.

Other brands, like M.A.C., Kiehl’s, and Aveda offer some recycling trade-in programs for their brands or sometimes just oft-thrown-away products (like bottle caps). Some of which have incentives attached (like free makeup). Origins is the only one I’ve ever been able to find that takes any brand’s containers, AND they led the charge in setting up a recycling program at all.

How gorgeous!