- 27 minutes ago
The beauty industry throws away thousands of perfectly good items every day, but is dumpster diving the solution for saving these products?
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00:00All right, we're going.
00:03Alrighty.
00:13Two years ago, I stumbled upon a YouTube video
00:16that blew hauls and favorites out of the water.
00:18Makeup lovers all over the country
00:20have been diving into dumpsters
00:21behind big box beauty stores
00:23and snagging thousands of dollars
00:25of brand new and used makeup,
00:26documenting their finds
00:28for hundreds of thousands of people to see.
00:31And thus began a year-long journey
00:33that ended with me diving into a dumpster myself.
00:37It all began with Jessica Kassler,
00:39whose dumpster diving videos
00:40have made her something of an expert on the topic.
00:43I made my way to her apartment in New Jersey
00:45to find out more about her hobby.
00:47How did you get into this?
00:49I got into dumpster diving
00:50probably seven years ago at this point.
00:52In college, I watched a documentary called Dive,
00:54and in that documentary,
00:56there's a guy who dumpster dives for food,
00:58and he really showed how there's like
01:01an insane amount of food waste in America.
01:03So we tried dumpster diving for food, loved it.
01:06It was successful.
01:07I had seen, I was on YouTube one day,
01:09that someone dumpster dived for makeup,
01:11and I was like, what?
01:12Since I had already done it for food,
01:14I was like, oh, I can do this.
01:15So it took me like two seconds
01:17to like put on a pair of old jeans
01:18and like try it myself.
01:20It was very successful.
01:21I went into the dumpster.
01:22There was a box.
01:23I pulled it out.
01:24It said like returns or damaged or something,
01:26and it was just all nice product.
01:29And I just like put it in my car and went home.
01:31Let's talk about the legality of dumpster diving.
01:33It's legal in the United States,
01:34but obviously you want to make sure
01:36you're not trespassing.
01:36It's not the most black and white thing.
01:39There are definitely a lot of gray areas.
01:41And Jess is right.
01:42The 1988 Supreme Court case California v. Greenwood
01:46made dumpster diving legal in the United States.
01:48However, certain city or county laws
01:51can still make the practice illegal.
01:53If dumpsters rest on private property,
01:55it's still unlawful to trespass.
01:57I've had an instance once
01:59where a dumpster door closed on me.
02:02It was windy and it was fine.
02:03It scared me.
02:04It's dangerous, right, to be in a dumpster.
02:05Like other people could be using that dumpster
02:07as their personal receptacle.
02:09So you always kind of want to be prepared
02:10for like the worst.
02:12Apart from the obvious physical harm
02:15associated with dumpster diving,
02:16the overall practice of using
02:18and sometimes reselling makeup found in dumpsters
02:21sounds unhygienic to say the least.
02:24So I sat down with Mount Sinai dermatologist Dr. Zeichner
02:27to find out just what could be lurking inside a dumpster.
02:30What are some of the health and hygiene risks
02:33of diving into a dumpster
02:34and taking beauty products out of it?
02:36When you purchase a beauty product new from the store,
02:38you know the history of that product.
02:40But when it's in the dumpster,
02:41you don't know the history.
02:42You don't know who used it before.
02:44You don't know what it's touched.
02:46And there are some real issues here
02:47in terms of infectious diseases.
02:49Bacteria like staph that can cause abscesses,
02:52skin infections.
02:53And then of course there are viral infections
02:55like herpes virus.
02:56If there was a lipstick that somebody else used
02:58and they had a cold sore
02:59and then they returned the product,
03:01you don't know what's actually living on that lipstick.
03:04There are preservatives in a product
03:06and the company can only guarantee
03:08that it's not contaminated up to the date
03:11that's on there for its expiration.
03:13Solids are easier to sanitize than liquids.
03:17When I hear about sanitizing the applicator
03:20of the liquid lipstick,
03:21you're not sanitizing the liquid itself.
03:24Something like that makes me really, really nervous.
03:26So I always tell everybody to err on the side of safety.
03:31There are clear health and hygiene risks to dumpster diving.
03:34No matter how one feels about the practice itself though,
03:37I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
03:41I'd just watched hours worth of videos of dumpster divers
03:44rifling through hordes of product.
03:46For me, the real question isn't why do people dumpster dive?
03:50It's why are these stores throwing away all of this product?
03:55Jess wondered the same thing.
03:56The first time I did it, it was really just eye-opening that like,
04:00oh my gosh,
04:00all of this stuff is being thrown away.
04:02Oh, you're dumpster diving for makeup, like why?
04:03There's so much more than that.
04:05Like a lot of times there's like soaps and shampoos
04:07and body care products that are just getting thrown away.
04:09And I hate thinking that all that stuff's gonna be unused
04:12and go in the dumpster and go in a landfill
04:14when it really doesn't need to be.
04:15Definitely a really bad haul would be something that's souped.
04:19What does that mean?
04:19Souped is when the employees of that business
04:22have either dumped lotion or foundation or bleach
04:26onto the products in response to dumpster divers.
04:29You know, since it got popular on YouTube,
04:31I'm sure there's been talks down the line,
04:33all right, employees gotta get more serious about souping.
04:35Electronics like hair dryers or curling irons or straighteners,
04:39what they do to technically soup those products
04:41is that they'll cut the cord.
04:43But luckily, I know someone that can put them back together.
04:47And so I have a perfectly usable, expensive hair dryer
04:51that I use every day.
04:53I reached out to Ulta Beauty, a store many divers frequent,
04:57to find out why their products are sent to landfill.
05:00Although they declined to be interviewed,
05:02they did provide this statement.
05:04Ulta Beauty, like other retailers,
05:06disposes of product for a reason.
05:08Products that are damaged, used, expired,
05:11or otherwise unsaleable or unsuitable
05:13for donation are disposed of in accordance
05:15with applicable laws, rules, and regulations.
05:18It's understandable that retailers need to dispose
05:21of products deemed unsafe.
05:23But after seeing items like perfectly usable beauty tools
05:26wind up in the dumpster, I couldn't help but wonder,
05:29is there another option when it comes to disposing of product?
05:32It all goes back to corporate responsibility.
05:35Recycling seems like the logical first step,
05:37but it isn't the best option, especially since 91% of plastic isn't recycled.
05:43That's why companies like TerraCycle have cropped up,
05:45to help process hard to recycle materials.
05:48We deal with items that cost more to process and recycle
05:52than the value at the end.
05:54So TerraCycle partners with different brands who sponsor the shipping
05:59and recycling of all of their non-recyclable material.
06:02What are some things that are deemed non-recyclables?
06:05In the instance of personal care and beauty,
06:08think about the different types of plastics and or metals
06:11that might be in one single product.
06:13If you have a shampoo bottle with a pump,
06:16inside of that may be a spring or some sort of an additional plastic.
06:21So it's multi-polymer.
06:22And so it automatically becomes more complicated in that way.
06:25What do you think that retailers and brands can do
06:29instead of putting all this waste into landfill?
06:32The first step for a lot of brands is to take a macro step back and say,
06:36okay, what is it that we're producing?
06:37What do our supply chains look like?
06:39What's important to our consumer?
06:40How do we want to be a good steward to the environment?
06:43And then what's the end of life for our product?
06:45So once a consumer has it and they've now utilized the product inside, then what?
06:50How can we offer an end of life solution that's sustainable
06:53and not negatively impacting the environment and remove waste from landfills?
06:58According to a 2015 report by Nielsen,
07:0166% of global consumers say they're willing to pay more for sustainable brands.
07:06Retailers can work with third-party organizations
07:09to ensure that their unsaleable products aren't left sitting in landfills
07:13for the next 500 years.
07:15And brands should be taking the steps needed to get there.
07:18But it's not just the disposal methods of product that needs to change.
07:21It's the products themselves.
07:23Beauty industry veteran Shane Wolf has worked with successful haircare brands
07:27like Breadkin and Pureology.
07:29In 2018, he worked with L'Oreal to launch Seed Phytonutrients,
07:33a brand that uses shower-friendly, compostable cardboard bottles.
07:37I would love to learn from you about why you decided to start Seed.
07:41I spent my entire career working in the beauty industry,
07:44and there came a point when I started to see the pictures of ocean plastic
07:47and reading the realities of the fact that our landfills are filling with mountains of plastic.
07:53And I'm looking around at the beauty industry that I'd spent all my career in saying,
07:57we can do better than this.
07:59As knowledge increases with consumers, we see their choices shifting as well.
08:03A great example is the no straws movement.
08:05For me, the tipping point was when I went from wanting to create an actual product,
08:09as in a formula, to then saying, but how will we package that?
08:13It's time to go because we need to lead by example to show that there is another way.
08:17There was never a moment of doubt.
08:20We went directly to the CEO of L'Oreal Worldwide and pitched the idea.
08:24It was a yes from the beginning.
08:26What makes the Seed Phytonutrients bottle and the things that you package your products
08:30in different from what else is out there on the market?
08:32Knowing we already had great formulas, we knew we would only launch when we found a packaging solution
08:37that helped to reduce our dependency on plastic overall.
08:40Very little plastic is recycled.
08:42On the contrary, about 90% of paper is recycled in the U.S.
08:46So the Seed Phytonutrients bottle is the industry's first shower-safe paper bottle that is composed
08:51of 60% less plastic than a normal bottle.
08:53So I'm pleased that we have reduced the amount of plastic per bottle by 60%, but in no way
08:58am I satisfied.
08:59And in 2019, we're down to 70% with a plan to reach 80% less by the year after
09:05that.
09:07The beauty industry creates an exorbitant amount of waste, that much we know.
09:11I decided I had to see for myself just how much is thrown away, so I hitched a ride with
09:31money.
09:32What should I expect?
09:33I think going in with no or low expectations is probably the way to go.
09:39Visualize that we're going to find something.
09:40Okay.
09:41Definitely I plan my route of like, alright, I want to hit this place, this place, and this
09:44place, and kind of organize it like that.
09:47Got it.
09:47I'm glad you're like my guide tonight.
09:48Yeah.
09:49I like the Gandalf of dumpster diving.
10:00Ready?
10:01Alright.
10:02First dumpster.
10:04What's in here?
10:04So exciting.
10:06Looks like, hmm, boxes and stuff.
10:14Yeah, try to land and like, yeah.
10:17Ew.
10:21Bye.
10:26Alright.
10:27I think this is a dud.
10:28It is a cardboard only receptacle.
10:30The reason I wanted us to go in there is because sometimes you do find product in the
10:34cardboard bins.
10:36That's just because people are lazy or don't read the sign and put in whatever they want.
10:43Alright, dumpster number two.
10:45Let's do this.
10:47After you.
10:50Be careful with this one.
10:52Okay.
10:57It's not easy.
11:00Got it?
11:01Okay.
11:02Okay.
11:02So it doesn't smell the greatest in here.
11:05But it doesn't smell that bad.
11:07It's not so bad.
11:08Not what I was expecting.
11:09Okay.
11:09This is definitely like their food situation.
11:11But look at this.
11:13So here's product.
11:15This is definitely a product, right?
11:17Hair gel.
11:17Let's just see if it's like, I don't know.
11:19It doesn't look touched.
11:20It's untouched.
11:22So that might be a keep.
11:24So this looks open.
11:25Some sort of hair color.
11:26That's, that would be a no go.
11:28Shampoo.
11:29But it does look 100% full.
11:31If you need to organize things outside of a dumpster, that's fine.
11:34But obviously make sure that you like clean up even more than you found it.
11:37Just being respectful of the area.
11:40Oh my God.
11:41We found the mother load.
11:43This is clearly a bag that is full of like completely new, untouched lotions, conditioners, hair sprays.
11:55I mean just tons of stuff.
11:56Looks like totally unopened.
11:58They were just on sale and nobody wants them.
11:59Yeah, no one wanted them and they just trashed them.
12:02Absolutely.
12:02Spray on.
12:03Spray on color.
12:04Right.
12:05So I'm seeing more stuff over here.
12:07Like I found a whole bunch of these.
12:09More hair spray.
12:10It's 100% full.
12:12Oh wait, I found more.
12:14Whole bunch of hair color.
12:17A ton of hair color, yeah.
12:19It's powder acrylics.
12:20Everything's there.
12:21Like none of it's, it's all fine.
12:26I would say we found a pretty successful haul.
12:28I think so.
12:29This is great.
12:30Like I said, sometimes you find absolutely nothing or there's been someone there before you.
12:34Yeah, you got the goods.
12:36Yeah.
12:37Regardless of how you feel about diving itself, there are many ways companies and consumers can make more sustainable choices.
12:44And we shouldn't stop there.
12:46It's also important that the government has set them up for success too, like offering tax incentives for sustainable initiatives.
12:54Yeah.
12:56I can't begin to know what the long-term solution to this problem is.
13:00All I know for sure is that something needs to be done.
13:03And with the interest in sustainable and natural beauty surging, this couldn't be a better time for consumers and brands
13:10to stand up and show the world what really matters to them.
13:14In an ideal world, maybe you wouldn't even have to.
13:16Right.
13:17You wouldn't have to dumpster dive because everything would have a place and have a home and there wouldn't be
13:21overproduction of stuff.
13:22I look forward to the day when there's no longer the beauty industry and the sustainable beauty industry.
13:28When it is just the beauty industry.
13:31And I know that we're going to get there.
13:33The beauty industry here.