An industrious Redditor showed that consumers might be leaving huge savings on the table by prematurely tossing products in pump bottles. They shared the striking results of salvaging as much as possible in the r/Frugal subreddit.
The photo shows their innovative method to maximize lotion use from pump bottles, called "clam-shelling." The Redditor cut the lotion bottles open and used a rubber spatula to gather as much as possible into a new container. The results were impressive.
"13 'empty' lotion bottles clam-shelled produced 36oz that would normally be tossed," they declared. "I can't be the only one out there, right?"
The savings also might surprise you. A Redditor did the math with the assumption that the OP did the method on 20-ounce bottles and was able to save roughly 14% of product based on the data they shared. That yielded them nearly two bottles and $30 in lotion that would've gone to waste based on the costs of a two-pack.
The environmental benefits are significant as well for the OP. Clam-shelling cuts down on the number of lotions they need, reducing production and shipping resources. It also lowers plastic packaging use and disposal, which recycling isn't currently able to keep up with.
Considering plastic packaging's major contributions to the plastic pollution crisis, the OP is doing their part to ease some of that problem. The beauty industry accounts for a staggering 120 billion units of packaging annually, per the Guardian.
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Consumers can clam-shell their own beauty products or seek out reuse-and-refill programs that lower plastic packaging waste and product waste from pump bottles.
Other solutions on the horizon are plastic packaging alternatives for beauty products that break down much quicker than plastic and don't carry the risks of leaching microplastics into water and food sources.
Commenters were eager to try the technique themselves, though its necessity left them unsettled.
One user exclaimed, "Your post was so satisfying! I just cut open a bottle of Lubriderm and it's crazy how much was inside! Why do companies do this? It's so wasteful."
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"I do legitimately applaud what you're doing, but I also think it's heinous to be selling something in a disposable package that forces the consumer to take extra steps to avoid wasting so much of the product from the get go," a frustrated Redditor wrote.
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