Recycling Statement
In 2020 there are an increasing number of people who are looking to ensure they make sustainable and ethical choices. Here at Bulldog, we couldn’t agree more with this approach and feel passionately about making the best male skincare in the best possible way.
We have strived to learn as much as possible about the end of life of our products by consulting recycling industry experts to ensure that the products we create can be widely recycled. We have visited waste treatment facilities to get some hands-on insight into how they operate. This allowed us to speak to them directly about the challenges they face as a business as well as what we can do to help them to recycle our products more easily.
Our Packaging
Bulldog products all display a symbol known as the resin code identifier. That’s the little triangle made of arrows which, usually, contains a number. This symbol explains the packaging material i.e. type of plastic.
Our tubes are currently labelled as “7 other” because the “body” of the tube and the “cap” are made from slightly different types of plastic (PE and PP). However PP and PE can be recycled together as they are part of the same overall plastic family (the polyolefins).
Keep Caps on Bottles
We have learnt that due to the mechanical recycling process currently in place in facilities, small items (less than 80mm) are likely not to get recycled as materials will go through a giant tumbler these small items are likely to fall through.
This is why caps should always be left on bottles so they too can get recycled, no matter what colour they are.
Three Steps To Recycling Our Products
Tubes
- If recycling tubes, cut the top off to around half way. Don’t cut the end off completely as this could end up in landfill.
- Give the tube a quick rinse. It doesn’t have to be spotless but a quick clean is preferable.
- Pop it in your recycling bin and place in curb-side recycling (or wherever you usually recycle your plastics).
Bottles
- If recycling bottles, unscrew the top first.
- Give the bottle a quick rinse. It doesn’t have to be spotless but a quick clean is preferable.
- Remove the label, squash and place the cap back on the bottle. Pop it in your recycling bin and place in curb-side recycling.
Whether packaging gets recycled is very much dependant on area. The recycling process is complicated and there are a few reasons why packaging could potentially be rejected before being recycled. This process is continually changing and improving, hopefully, we will see continued improvement on issues (such as black plastic not being recycled) in the next few years.
At Bulldog Skincare, we sadly can’t guarantee they will be recycled (as we’re not the ones doing the recycling) but we encourage our customers to still put all Bulldog plastic & paper products in the recycle bin or send them back through any available mail-back program for personal care and beauty waste.
The best way to prepare your Bulldog products to ensure they are more likely to be recycled is to follow the steps above; rinse and remove labels. This is because the UV scanners will read the plastic type of the label rather than the bottle.
Rinse Your Recycling
Generally speaking, recycling needs to have no more than 5% contamination, this means it doesn’t need to be spotless but needs to be mostly cleaned out.
Our pump bottles (used for our Foaming Shave Gels) have a special dispensing mechanism known as ‘airless’, which will ensure that there is no product left inside the bottle. These bottles are made of a single material (PP), so after removing the label, you can just pop them into your recycling bin when empty.
Check with Your Local Authority
Recycling around the world does vary from country to country and unfortunately this is something beyond our control. Get in touch with your local government or council if you are unsure about whether you can recycle an item locally.
We hope that this has helped you to gain some insight into how to recycle our products.
We are still learning a great deal and are hoping to bring a lot more innovation to our products in the future to help continue to minimise our impact on the environment. While there’s loads on information about recycling online, we suggest you visit the industry body, Recycle Now, and read their guide on Recycling Symbols Explained and your local government website to find the latest and most up to date information.