Beauty businesses: how to safely recycle your PPE waste

With more single-use personal protective equipment (PPE) being used than ever before due to the coronavirus pandemic, being able to sustainably dispose of your beauty business’s used PPE has never been more important. 

Although single-use masks and gloves are considered “non-recyclable” types of waste in traditional recycling systems, recycling experts TerraCycle have launched turnkey solution Zero Waste Box – where PPE can be recycled to protect the environment, stopping these items from ending up in landfill or incineration. 

The company’s Zero Waste Boxes can be placed on your salon floor and in staff rooms to encourage both employees and clients to dispose of their PPE for recycling. When full, the boxes are returned to TerraCycle for processing and the collected PPE waste is aggregated, before being cleaned and melted into pellets. 

The recycled pellet material can then be used by third-parties to manufacture a variety of new products including outdoor furniture, plastic shipping pallets, outdoor decking, watering cans, storage containers, bins, tubes for construction applications and more.  

What types of PPE can be recycled: 

TerraCycle offer beauty businesses four different types of Zero Waste Boxes to recycle your used PPE equipment:

• Disposable gloves and face masks– to recycle both surgical and industrial face masks and to recycle vinyl, nitrile and latex gloves

• Disposable face masks– to recycle surgical and industrial face masks only

• Disposable gloves– to recycle vinyl, nitrile and latex gloves only

• Safety equipment and protective gear– to recycle disposable safety gear including garments, gloves, masks and safety glasses.

However, these boxes do not accept fabric, homemade or paper face masks, but can collect surgical-type masks as long as they don't come from a medical environment.

Did you know that there is a free nail polish recycling scheme for beauty salons as well as a free glass recycling service?

For the latest coronavirus news and advice, visit Professional Beauty's Coronavirus Resource Guide.