Donate
- Bowery Mission (bowery.org) – new toiletries
Homeless shelters usually are always in need of hygiene items. For instance, the Bowery Mission accepts soap, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste and shaving cream. All products need to be unopened and in fully sealed outer packaging.
- Win (winnyc.org) – new toiletries
Win is a shelter for homeless women and children and accepts new toiletries. Visit winnyc.org and click on “Make an in-kind donation” to find out more. They only accept donations at their 105th Street location and not directly at their shelters.
- Homes For The Homeless (hfhnyc.org) – new and used toiletries, select makeup products **
Check HFH’s wishlist to see what they currently accept. As I’m writing this in summer 2019, they’re accepting toiletries, lipsticks and nail polish. Donated items can be mailed in or dropped off at their Cooper Square offices. However, always make sure to call ahead to double-check with regards to products (and product conditions) they accept and to find out hours of drop-off.
- Share Your Beauty! (family-to-family.org) – new beauty products and toiletries
The Share Your Beauty program collects unused products and delivers them to organizations serving women in crisis. The program is supported by LeSportsac, whose corporate offices in New York’s Times Square serve as a drop-off location.
- Beauty Bus (beautybus.org) – new beauty products and toiletries
Beauty Bus provides beauty services to seriously ill patients. They’re NOT based in NYC but I still wanted to list them here as a resource for you if you decide to support their unique cause. Beauty Bus accepts new products that are sealed in original packaging. Full sizes are preferred. Check out their list of accepted items. Beauty Bus is located in California, but you can mail your products to their Santa Monica location.
Sell
- Glambot (glambot.com) – new and lightly used beauty products **
- Poshmark (poshmark.com) – new makeup products
- MUABS (muabs.org) – new and lightly used beauty products **
Recycle
- tenoverten (tenoverten.com) – leftover nail polish from any brand
Nail salon tenoverten partners with a chemical recycling and disposal company called Chemwise to purchase recycling kits that they then fill with nail polish bottles that can no longer be used. Chemwise recycles both the actual leftover nail polish and components of the bottle, such as the glass and plastic caps and brushes. You can bring old polish bottles of any brand that you have at home to one of tenoverten’s NYC locations (they also have locations in Los Angeles and Austin) and they will take care of them.
- L’Occitane (usa.loccitane.com) – empty cosmetic products containers
- Beauty packaging such as lip balm tubes, makeup remover bottles and pumps, fragrances bottles and pumps, and deodorant sticks.
- Skin care packaging such as face mask packaging, refill pouches, and dispensers and tubes for soap, facial cleansers and body lotions.
- Hair care packaging such as pumps and caps from shampoo and conditioner bottles, hair care dispensers and containers, hair product trigger heads, and refill pouches.
- Package Free Shop (packagefreeshop.com) – empty & clean cosmetic products containers (+other personal care waste)
- DSNY (NYC Department of Sanitation) (nyc.gov/assets/dsny) – anything else, especially hazardous waste
Find out how to safely dispose of anything you’re unsure of in NYC on the DSNY website (search tool “How To Get Rid Of…”). According to this source, “most cosmetics are considered ‘hazardous waste,’ which means you shouldn’t dump the remaining contents of a nearly-empty product down the drain or rinse empty beauty containers in the sink, where they can contaminate the water supply. Instead, call your local disposal center and ask if it accepts cosmetics as hazardous waste. If it doesn’t, make sure to dispose of the contents directly into a trash bin destined for a landfill, and wipe down the container with a paper towel in lieu of rinsing it out.”
- If you pass on products (either donate or sell), make sure all your products are non-expired (cosmetics shelf life FAQ). Ideally, only donate or sell if the product in question is within at least 3 months from the printed expiration date (if applicable).
- … “even if an organization accepts used beauty products, it’s never charitable to donate your germs. Anything that comes in a jar that you dip your fingers into shouldn’t be given away — it’s just too risky. The same goes for cream blushes and eye shadows (bacteria thrives in cream formulas but can’t survive in powders), mascaras and anything applied directly to the skin with a wand, like lip gloss. These products are best passed along to friends and family members (hey, they might be more inclined to overlook the germ factor) or tossed.” (source: Fashionista)
PIN IT:
