Oh Ladies, save your old mascara wands! Help Save Wildlife!

Lauren Pineda,

For all of the makeup gurus out there, save your old mascara wands! When you hit the bottom of the mascara tube and have nothing left, no need to throw the wand away. In fact, if you should clean them and collect them, you can actually help out wildlife by donating these wands. How so?

Wands for Wildlife is a non profit organization that started from Appalachian Wildlife Refuge. Appalachian Wild’s executive director and co-founder Savannah Trantham had posted on social media, asking for used mascara wands, because the bristles can be used to help remove fly eggs, oil, larva, fly eggs, mites, infections, mud and other contaminants from the feathers and fur of wild animals, back in March 2017.

From that came Wands for Wildlife, helping clean up wild animals while also repurposing old mascara wands to better the environment. To recycle mascara wands to help wildlife rehabilitation is a win-win for everyone involved, knocking out ways we can help our environment from different angles. The wildlife program emphasizes greater mindfulness of the impact that human activities can have on nature, so it’s no wonder wildlife rehabilitation efforts.

All you have to do is clean the wands with warm soapy water, place them in Ziploc bags, and then mail them! Right now, because of COVID-19, wand collection is on pause until 2021, but you can check their website for more information when it’s time. Appalachian Wildlife Refuge focuses on, “helping the wildlife of Western North Carolina,” while Wands for Wildlife, “expands efforts to support wildlife rehabilitation along with encouraging greater mindfulness of the impact of human activities, including the use of plastics, on the environment.”

This is such a small effort to make in helping save wildlife and the environment. For all those who wear makeup, this takes few seconds, and you can be a wildlife rehabilitator too.