Advice on Recycling Plastics from the Bathroom

While most of us typically recycle plastics from the kitchen, plastics also are widely used in the bathroom—and many of these plastics can go from the bathroom to the recycling bin. Packaging for shampoo, conditioner, lotions, sunscreen, mouthwash, body wash, medicines and other products used in the bathroom often is made with the same plastics as food packaging, and they can be recycled together.

To encourage all of us to recycle more plastics at home, Plastics Make it Possible® has launched Bathroom to Bin, an interactive online feature that offers some humorous advice on recycling plastics used in the bathroom. The plastics recycled from a typical bathroom can be used to make everything from outdoor furniture to cooking tools to fashionable clothing. By recycling plastics and looking for products made with recycled plastics, we help close the recycling loop—and create demand for even more recycling.

Visitors to Bathroom to Bin explore an interactive medicine cabinet full of beauty and personal care products that reveal practical recycling tips and amusing facts.

“Bathroom to Bin is an entertaining way to encourage all of us to expand recycling beyond the kitchen and into the bathroom,” said Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for the American Chemistry Council.“Recycling bathroom plastics is a simple step we can take to help the environment by capturing more of this valuable material from the waste stream.”