How do I Dispose of Fingernail Polish?

Don't toss it because it's sticky or gooey - go purchase some thinner at your local salon supply shop and it will be like new again!

I just threw one away yesterday as it's getting stickier without knowing it contains toxic chemical. But I started to feel it might not be right as I remember it's written 'flammable' on the bottle, so I looked it up and found this great article.

One more idea: I used to paint a birthday card for my boyfriend using nail polish. It looks colourful and pretty!

I like to use my nail polish in other ways. I've painted dry leaves - especially stunning with clear glittery polish! You can spruce up small toy cars. Touch up scratches on a bike, or on enamel-coated metal furniture.

I've painted juice can lids with pictures of events in the coming week, to have a child-friendly calendar on the fridge - use magnetic tape on the 'shallow' side so they'll stick to the fridge. Small stones look great painted with nail polish.

And the first alternative use I'd ever heard of for nail polish - use it to seal microscope slides so they don't dry out.

All the information in this article was new to me. I wish the manufacturers would put eco-warning labels on products that should be taken to hazardous waste disposal facilities. I find it easy to forget that there's a difference between "won't hurt a human" and "won't kill the tadpoles." What is the legal requirement for a non-toxic label?

Thanks for the tip on using nail polish thinner to refresh old polishes.

If the color isn't too dark, you might use it as a "base" coat on your finger or toe nails, and paint the favored new color on top.

I'm going to start looking for environmentally friendly nail polish and remover from now on. I once read that if you have a lot of hazardous products in your house and you can't take them to a Hazardous Waste Day roundup, the best thing to do is just use them up as you're supposed to do, a little at a time.

Those toilet bowl cleaners and spray cleaners seem to pile up, but don't dump them down the drain all at once! Use them up and vow to look into better ways to clean - vinegar, baking soda, etc.

What about the more natural nail polishes, the ones that say they're non-toxic? I'm pretty sure that both OPI and Zoya fingernail polish have non-toxic versions.

Can you just throw those away, or do you still need to dispose of it like you would regular nail polish?

Wow, I never knew all that about the chemicals in fingernail polish. You hear about the acetone in fingernail polish remover, but I guess a lot of people just don't think about the chemicals in nail polish being toxic as well.

Which leads me to a question -- what are you supposed to do with the detritus after you remove fingernail polish?

I can't imagine that a cotton ball soaked in acetone and old fingernail polish would be particularly healthy for the environment, and you can't really compost them, so what are you supposed to do?

Do you have any tips about this?

Thanks for the research and well written article.

Thank you so much for this article! So many people just throw away nail polish every day, not even knowing what it does to the environment.

I also really loved how you gave some examples of how you can re-use fingernail polish, rather than just throwing it away.

And the tips are really true -- I started painting my nails with my mom's old Revlon fingernail polish, so I can tell you from personal experience, teenagers will definitely appreciate it.

And for all you people who change moods and change fingernail polish accordingly, do consider re-using it, or giving it to someone else. There really are better options than just getting rid of it, even if you dispose of it properly.

Very, very good article!