Reusable Cotton Rounds: Your Way to Less Waste

Reusable cotton rounds & how to create less waste in your daily beauty routine. 

Do you love makeup, facials, and cleansers? Even if you are not an obsessive beauty product fan, chances are you have some sort of daily skincare routine.

 

If you use cotton rounds to apply the product to your face, think again:

Reusable facial rounds almost always end up in the landfill.

Reusable cotton rounds are the way to go.

 

Here’s the deal:

Although disposable cotton pads technically can be composted, many individuals use multiple per day and then end up tossing them once they are finished.

Consider this:

If you use one cotton pad in the morning and one at night, you are using a total of 730 per year!
That also equates to nearly $50 spent annually on a disposable, unnecessary product.

 

 

There’s more:

Cotton rounds are almost always wrapped in plastic. It seems unavoidable.

Between the waste of the cotton and the plastic packaging, you can see how this tiny single-use product can quickly make a negative impact on the environment when used by many people.

 

Not only are these little pads wasteful, but the production of cotton brings about a whole bunch of sustainable problems.

Here’s the real deal on cotton:

The Truth About Cotton

At a surface level, cotton seems like a great material choice. It’s plant-based, soft, biodegradable and the industry employs 250 million people globally.

What is so wrong with that?

There are hidden environmental and ethical consequences from the production of cotton.

Although it is more sustainable than synthetic fibers, it still has it’s flaws. The farming process of cotton is very intensive.

In fact:

The Sustainable Trade Initiative declares, “No commodity is as polluting as cotton.”

Water and pesticides are both extremely overused, which can threaten ecosystems.

Get this:
It requires over 20,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of cotton.

 

Okay, let’s do some math here.

With that statistic, we can calculate that the average 100-count pack of cotton rounds uses around 3,100 liters of water in production. If you have a hard time visualizing that, just image the volume of 1,550 bottles of soda. Yikes!

Aside from using up a lot of water, the production of cotton also uses a lot of pesticides. They are bad for the soil and harmful to humans.

In fact, 10% of all agricultural chemicals used around the world are used by the cotton industry.

There’s more:

Pesticides, which are usually toxic to humans, end up in our waterways. They are helpful in getting rid of pests, but they also end up killing natural enemies of those insects. This messes with the entire ecosystem.

Also, even though this industry employs millions of people, many of these people do not receive fair wages or safe working conditions.

These workers are directly exposed to pesticides and work long hours for little pay. Some place even rely on child labor for the production of cotton.

Although the cotton industry has huge problems, there is some good news:

Many farmers are trying to grow cotton more sustainably.

 

 

This cotton is oftentimes organic, which means that pesticides are not used. There also is Better Cotton, which does use pesticides but incorporates more sustainable farming practices.

Get this:

Cotton production typically relies on synthetic fertilizers. The production of these fertilizers for this industry alone accounts for 1.5% of the global energy consumption annually. The continued use of these chemicals produces nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas.

Here’s the thing:

Soil is one of the most important aspects of farming. The use of synthetic fertilizers can degrade soil, which allows it to sequester less carbon.

Luckily, the cotton industry is trying to do better.

Even if cotton production does become a more sustainable farming practice, it does not seem practical to be wasting all of these resources for the sake of a single-use item.

The good news is that there is a sustainable alternative to cotton rounds.

Check it out:

Reusable Cotton Rounds

 

These EcoRoots Organic Reusable Cotton Rounds are the perfect solution. They are a great way to protect the environment by eliminating the need for disposable cotton products.

The pack comes with 10 reusable cotton pads and get this:

They only cost $10.95!

This may seem expensive in comparison to the price of a pack of disposable cotton rounds, but think about how you are do not have to keep buying replacement packs.

What a clever, sustainable idea!

You are saving money and creating less waste.

It gets better:

 

They are made from a mix of GOTS certified organic cotton and bamboo. Since they are organic, there are no pesticides used in the production of the material.

This fabric is both sustainable and biodegradable.

If they ever start to wear down, they can just be composted.

Remember how I mentioned the plastic waste associated with disposable cotton rounds earlier?

Well, there’s no need to worry about this product. EcoRoots is committed to providing you with plastic-free products with recyclable packaging.

 

Here’s how they work:

Reusable Cotton Rounds: How They Work

If you are familiar with how to use the traditional cotton rounds, then these are not much different. They can be used to apply face cream, lotion, and toner or even remove your makeup!

One of the best products to use with these organic cotton rounds is this zero waste face oil, vegan toner, or natural make up remover.

Listen up:

1. Apply any of your favorite skincare products to reusable cotton round and gently massage onto the skin.

2. Wash either by hand or in a delicate bag in the washer.

3. Allow the pads to air dry flat and you are ready to use them again and again!

Wasn’t that easy?

 

Just remember not to use any harsh detergents on the rounds or put them in the dryer. Since they are made from natural fabrics and are not pre-washed, you can expect some initial shrinkage.

 

Zero Waste Goals

 

Although a cotton round can seem so infinitesimal in the grand scheme of things, every little action we take can either help or hurt our planet.

If you are someone who cares about the future wellbeing of Earth and the generations to come, simply rethink your habits.

 

 

It’s easy:

With the help of brands like us EcoRoots, blogs, and other resources, we can all learn more about how our consumption is destroying the planet.

Luckily, there is an endless supply of sustainable alternatives out there, you just need to look out for them and be critical of your current solutions, products, and habits!

Think about it:

If you decided to swap your disposable cotton rounds for reusable cotton rounds, you would be saving around 21,700 liters of water a year.

 

 

Now think about if you tell 5 friends about reusable cotton rounds and they make the switch, too.

Think of all the water you will be saving together and the amount of waste you will prevent from going to landfill.

 

 

See:

It matters! Every single little effort counts. Spreading the word about sustainability really is a domino effect. Make the switch!

 

 

You got this:

Zero waste really is not an unobtainable goal. We can all do it together! For more zero-waste products check out our blog post here.