We admit: We’ve accumulated a lot of nail polish at home over time. After all, you can never have enough shade. Whether it’s classic red, bright pink or pastel yellow – we love all the nuances and like to change things up from time to time.
But anyone who has too many bottles in their closet at home knows the problem: at some point the paint gets sticky, dries up or we no longer feel like certain colors. So what do you do with the little residue left? It would be wrong to throw old nail polish down the drain or the toilet. It is in the group of hazardous wastes such as old varnish and paint. Nail polish contains toxic pollutants that can enter our groundwater. Also, do not dispose of the beauty product with normal household waste, as pollutants may end up in the air we breathe through incineration.
We must always dispose of nail polish properly, both for the environment and for ourselves, which means bringing it to a collection point where hazardous waste is collected. But before you do that, there are a few more steps you need to take.
Step 1: Collect nail polish remnants
It’s worth collecting the remnants of old nail polish in an old candy jar or something. To completely loosen the paint on the walls of the vial, add some nail polish remover or turpentine to the polish and shake the jar until it is completely loose. Then the paint will be more liquid and it will be easier to transfer. When the candy jar is full of leftovers, you can take it to a collection point. They know what to do with it there.
Step 2: Glasses to glass waste
You can then put the empty glass into the used glass collection. Be careful, it’s just clear glass. If the glass is colored (red, blue, etc.), it belongs to the green glass container, according to Swiss Recycling.
Step 3: Where to put the cap and brush?
Swiss Recycling states that nail polish bottles, including the brush and cap, can usually be thrown into the glass collection. Due to the small lid, there is no significant contamination in the glass collection, so the quality of the recycling is not affected. If the cap is removed, please clean only used glass collection bottles so that no residue is spilled.
If you want to be even more precise, you can remove the plastic cap from the bottle with a brush and throw it elsewhere.
If the nail polish has already dried
If the nail polish is already old enough to dry completely, the pollutants that make the beauty product so dangerous have already evaporated. Meaning: It contains only color pigments and the entire bottle can be disposed of with household waste.