Sustainability

Empties Return Program™

By Valenti® — pioneers of the closed-loop movement since 2008

How it all started

Sales were growing. Our bottles, jars, and toppers — lids, pumps, droppers, and sprayers — were flying out the door. In Italy, our home, and across Europe, recycling is a given almost perfectly oiled machine. But in the US — specifically Michigan, where we set up shop — the recycling infrastructure was and continues to be, almost nonexistent.

The beauty industry produces around 120 billion pieces of packaging each year — mostly plastic, mixed materials, or plastic-coated containers — most ending up in landfills, rivers, and oceans. Even glass and aluminium are often capped or lined with unrecyclable plastics, making true sustainability rare.

With the average consumer using 5 to 10 personal care products daily — and women using even more — it became irrefutably obvious: every cosmetics company, including ours, was contributing to the trash problem. All those single-use containers and toppers were ending up as waste, and no one was taking it seriously, at all.

In 2008, just a year after Manuela Valenti founded By Valenti®, and before sustainability became a trend, we launched the first — and for well over a decade, the only — closed-loop Empties Return Program™ in the beauty industry. Our goal was simple: actually prevent our packaging from becoming pollution.

We changed the beauty industry, one empty at a time

We've inspired the beauty industry to think outside the box. Today, many brands around the world have adopted our groundbreaking program, offering similar initiatives because of our pioneering work.

For us, at By Valenti® sustainability isn't a campaign or an initiative — it’s a responsibility. It’s never been about marketing, pretty seals and badges, or recognition, but about doing what’s right.

Because our planet deserves nothing less.

• • •

In Search of a Solution

The Beginning of the Global Circular Initiative

Addressing the issue of beauty product waste required a commitment to accountability for every container that left our facility. This was no small challenge.

Reducing Plastic Usage: Plastic is nearly inescapable in the beauty industry — a material most brands find hard to renounce, or simply cannot avoid. Our commitment to the environment and sustainability led us to drastically reduce plastic in our packaging. By eliminating unnecessary plastics, we achieved a 95% reduction in plastic use, and have reimagined how we use the remaining 5%.
Prioritizing Glass: We deliberately avoid plastic bottles, aluminium bottles, tubes, multi-layer bags, and plastic jars — including so-called “recycled” plastics. Instead, we use glass bottles and jars, which are more sustainable, can be endlessly recycled into the same product, and reflect our commitment to environmental responsibility.
Repurposing Small Plastic Components: Some plastic elements are still essential — pumps, sprayers, caps, lids, and droppers needed a sustainable approach. We examined every possible solution, but all resulted in eventual disposal — except one: reuse. Pioneering a new approach, we created a program and developed simple cleaning instructions so customers could safely reuse these components multiple times. This innovation of ours — the first of its kind in the industry — significantly extends their lifespan and helps keep plastic out of global waste streams.

If one pump can be reused for a minimum of four years — and the product lasts two months — that’s 24 fewer pumps ending up in the waste stream. Multiplied across millions of units that's a substantial reduction in pollution. — Manuela Valenti / CEO & Founder of By Valenti®

Our Sustainability

No vanity seals. No empty certifications.

Sustainability, animal welfare, and environmental protection are foundational to By Valenti®. These principles are integral to our ethos — not marketing tactics or PR strategies.

Early on, we identified real problems, explored all available resources, and developed solutions that worked for us and the planet. We did this quietly, without press releases, pretty seals, certifications, or industry recognition — because the frameworks we developed didn’t exist when we started.

No other company in the skincare or cosmetics industry was addressing these issues the way we did, and it would be nearly a decade before our pioneering approach was even noticed, let alone imitated. Our standards are internal, precise, and rigorously followed; we created our own protocols, wrote our own books, long before the industry and newer brands caught up.

We don’t seek validation, pretty seals or external approval. Our commitment is to people, planet, and animals — delivering safe, effective products without polluting our environment, through processes we implemented before the industry caught up, which we stand behind, every time.

Our Foundational Standards

No Waste. No Trash.

Glass.

With first-hand insight into the glass manufacturing process, Manuela Valenti recognized the essential role of cullet — recycled, discarded glass — in the sustainable process of glass production.

Glass stands out as the only ideal packaging material: it is infinitely recyclable, completely inert (so it never alters the chemical structure of lotions and serums), and uniquely able to be fully sterilized, which is what we needed.

This makes glass the only material truly suited to a safe, effective, and circular packaging program.

Whether it’s to hold one of our award-winning serums with a low pH, an elegant anti-aging lotion, or any of our wildly potent, high-performing formulas, the container must preserve their freshness and integrity throughout its journey without compromising it nor altering it in any way.

Glass' inert nature ensures that each product remains stable, uncontaminated, and as effective as the day it was made.

Elegantly designed and carefully selected, our minimalist packaging is never custom-made. Every bottle, flask and jar is thoughtfully chosen from existing, off-the-shelf options for aesthetics, durability, functionality, reusability, and minimal environmental impact. By avoiding custom molds and tooling — which demand extra resources and create unnecessary waste — we help prevent pollution before it starts.

Glass is recyclable, reusable, sterilizable, and refillable, and this was the base of our pioneering work. We created a truly circular program for skincare that even the largest conglomerates never attempted.

Our packaging is easy to use, easy to clean, and we made it easy to return, so you can enjoy every last drop without worrying in which bin those empties belong — because true environmentally conscious luxurious skincare leaves nothing behind™.

Your participation is essential in closing the loop. Order a refill and send us your empties back today.

Cosmetic companies mimicking our groundbreaking work claiming their products do not come in contact with plastic or claiming to be "Zero Plastic Inside" are completely disingenuous.

Plastic is everywhere: on the inside of the aluminium cap covering that concealer/foundation to prevent any content from attacking the metal, to the tamperseal of that new serum you just bought.

Plastic in the cosmetics and skincare industry is 100% impossible to avoid — but its use can be reduced to a bare minimum.

The idea to reuse pumps, sprayers, misters, and droppers began in our own lab, where we routinely pulled apart, washed and reused large oils dispensing pumps out of necessity. It became clear that the only real difference between those and the smaller cosmetic pumps used on our products was their size. If we could properly clean and sanitize them, these components could be safely reused again and again stopping from discarding them entirely.

Because we use standard, off-the-shelf bottles, our toppers are universally compatible across our product line. This design choice allows each component to be reused indefinitely, preventing millions of plastic parts from ending up in landfills.

These dispensers are the only unavoidable plastic that comes into minimal contact with our products. To address their reusability — which was never attempted before — we developed a simple but highly effective cleaning and sanitizing process, making it possible to reuse them without compromising product safety or quality.

This approach set a new standard for waste reduction in beauty — long before it became an industry focus.

At By Valenti®, we don’t rely on empty claims, trends, or badges from certifying agencies. Every packaging decision is based on science and genuine environmental responsibility.

We never use plastic tubes, bottles, or jars. Plastics can leach contaminants into products — especially if the product is oil based, acidic or with a high pH — and are nearly impossible to reuse or recycle effectively worldwide. Most plastic packaging ends up incinerated, in landfills, or polluting waterways — with severe consequences for wildlife, people and the environment.
We never us aluminium bottles, jars, or tubes. Virtually all aluminium cosmetic packaging is lined with plastic on the inside to prevent corrosion, posing the same contamination risks as plastic containers. Aluminium packaging cannot be reused or recycled into new cosmetic bottles, and mining the raw material for the production and manufacturing of aluminium — bauxite ore — causes significant environmental and human harm.

For By Valenti®, true sustainability means not only choosing the right ingredients but the materials that protect your skin, your health, and the planet — no shortcuts, no empty promises, and no reliance on superficial certifications. Just uncompromising standards.

How does it work

By returning the glass bottles and jars back to us, and reusing the toppers, we increase the number of times a single topper can be reused and a single bottle can be refilled, completely eliminating trash from ever reaching any landfill. Broken or damaged bottles — cullet — are sent to glass manufacturing facilities to be remelted and transformed into new glass cosmetic bottles & jars.

Collect

Collect at least 5 bottles or jars and give them a wash. Save the toppers for your refills. Replace the toppers with the refill caps and lids.

Return

Use the contact form below and request an Empties Return Label. Drop your box with your empties at your nearest postal office.

Repurposing

We will industrially wash, sterilize and refill your bottles and jars giving each component an endless life cycle.

Toppers

Wash, rinse and sanitize your pumps, sprayers, droppers and misters.

Refills

Order a refill. Reuse your clean and sanitized toppers on your new refill bottles.

Thank you!

Once we receive your empties we will issue a discount code you can use on your next order.

Ready to get started?

Together we can stop packaging from becoming single-use.
Send them empties back and let's close that loop.

True Authentic Castile Hands Soap and Body Wash By Valenti Organics Natural Skincare for Everyone

We started our true close-loop program in 2008. We're the only skincare company that rewards its clients for doing the right thing.

No. At this time the Return for Cash segment of our Empties Return Program is available only for customers within the US.

Hundreds of thousands every year.

Simply wash your empties and seal the containers with their metal caps or lids. Save your toppers for your refills!

Wrap your empties to protect them from breakage, or use the packaging from your latest By Valenti order, and securely pack them in a box.

Fill in your details in the form below. We’ll send you instructions on how to pop your empties at the post office and back to us.

All the components of our packaging are fully recyclable.

Each country in the European Union has its own recycling program. Follow your country's regulations.

More information and details on our packaging can be located in the product's page.

Contact us using the form below. We'll provide information on how to safely dispose of your empties.

Chipped or scratched, send them empties back. Glass that can’t be refilled will be sent to glass manufacturing facilities where they will be crushed and used as cullet during the manufacturing process.

The jars and lids of Milk Bath Salts, Body Soufflés, Eye Balm, and Exfoliating Clay Masks.
The bottles and metal caps of our Facial Serums, Facial Oils, Facial Lotions, Liquid Soaps, Tanning Oils, Facial Cleansers and Makeup Removers, Facial Toners, Body Lotions, and Body Oils.

Soap and cosmetic boxes. You can place those in your recycling bin with newspapers and cardboard.
Paper tubes. These can be reused to store jewelry or small items, or disposed with newspapers and cardboard.
Containers that aren't ours. We only accept our own packaging, so make sure to keep the labels on.
Metal tin cans. These can be safely placed in the recycle bin.
Containers without labels. These won't be accepted. Make sure to place each component in the correct bin.
Toppers, (droppers, sprayers or pumps). Please don't include these or throw them out. These can be reused with your refill bottles. We will provide instructions on how to properly wash them and sanitize them.