The Body Shop surveyed Americans to find out how much plastic is thrown away from beauty product packaging and learn about American's attitudes towards recycling and sustainability. The report revealed some staggering stats around the plastic pileup in the US, and which states were putting their best foot forward on recycling their beauty plastic waste.

The Numbers

• There are 369,092,688 empty plastic bottles of shampoo. The same amount of empty shower gel bottles are thrown away in a month as the number of cars in the US.
• A staggering 384,899,983 razors are thrown away every month/ There are 3 times the number of razors thrown away in a month than there are houses in the US.
• 367,032,066 bottles of deodorant are thrown away each month. There are almost 6000 times the amount of empty deodorant cans thrown away in a month than there are coffee and snack shops in the US.
• On top of that, over 350 million toothbrushes are thrown away each month as well as over 215 million plastic hairbrushes.

Top States for Recycling

• New York City ranks number one with the highest number of Americans regularly recycling their beauty plastic waste at 65.4%
• The city of Austin follows closely behind at 65.3%.
• Coming in third is San Diego at 62.5%.

American Consumer Behavior

• 54% of Americans said they are more likely to purchase from companies that use sustainable materials and reduce plastic waste.
• 50% of Americans are actively trying to reduce their beauty plastic consumption. 
• 43% of Americans only buy from brands that have little-to-no plastic waste.