25 Low- or No-Waste Beauty Products for a Greener Routine

We'll just come right out and say it: It's time to start taking our beauty waste more seriously. Whether you've seen images of the devastating fires, listened to presidential candidates discuss the effects of climate change, or just notice your trash cans at home filling up with single-use beauty items and plastic packaging, our global waste problem has undoubtedly made its way to the forefront of your news feed by this point. And of course, the beauty industry isn't solely responsible for our overflowing landfills (we're looking at you, fashion industry!) and plastic-filled oceans, but that doesn't mean we can't all take accountability for our planet. So what do we do?

Well, it's complicated and a little overwhelming. In a recent report by the World Economic Forum, the nonprofit organization estimates that by 2050, there will be more plastics in the sea than fish. That is a jarring mental image.

As with any global issue, there's no quick fix and it really is a catch-22 because so many of the products we've grown to adore are housed in plastic containers, many of which are not recyclable. It's devastating to imagine that this waste often ends up in the ocean where it harms sea life and even gets fragmented into tiny particles that make it into our drinking water—not okay.

One tangible step we can each take is to look long and hard at our beauty routines and amend areas where we're excessively wasteful. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "achieving Net Zero Waste means reducing, reusing, and recovering waste streams to convert them to valuable resources with zero solid waste sent to landfills over the course of the year." To put it plainly, that means taking measures to make sure no part of our beauty buys can't be recycled, reused, or biodegraded. Ahead, we've rounded up 25 of our favorite sustainable, zero-waste beauty products for hair, makeup, body, and skin that will reduce the amount of waste we're all accumulating with our daily rituals daily. Every little bit helps.

Hair

Makeup

Body

Skin

Associate Beauty Editor

Courtney Higgs is a Cancer sun, Libra rising beauty enthusiast with about six years of experience in the editorial space. She was previously Who What Wear's associate beauty editor after spending many years working on the West Coast edit team at InStyle Magazine. She graduated from California State University, Northridge, with a BA in communication studies and pivoted to editorial after spending her college years working in the legal field. Her beauty philosophy is simple: She believes there are no wrong answers and that discovering our favorite beauty products and rituals is a journey, not a sprint. When she's not geeking out over products, she can be found adventuring around L.A. with her fiancé; watching reality TV with their French bulldog, Bernie Mac; or relating way too hard to astrology memes.