This Is What Happens To All The Toiletries That TSA Confiscates

There are a few essential rules to remember when flying: buy your snacks before getting to the airport, always book a window seat and remember to pack your toiletries in 3.4 ounce bottles. Despite that last one being law for almost 20 years, people still forget and the Transportation Security Administration confiscates millions of dollars worth of liquids every day. Now, one U.S. airport is looking to save confiscated liquids from the trash heap.

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Since 2006, passengers boarding any flight have been required to take all their liquid in bottles smaller than 3.4 oz packed away in a one-quart clear plastic bag. Some travelers still haven’t learned this, however, and turn up to airports every day with full size liquids that can’t be taken past security.

For years, those confiscated liquids, which might include toiletries or the three liters of rum I once saw a traveler attempt to take in carry on, have been thrown in the trash. Now, the Reagan National Airport in Washington is attempting to cut this waste with a pilot project that launched earlier this year.

Through the project, called Donate, Don’t Discard, RNA is working to donate new or nearly-new toiletries that have been confiscated by TSA to people in the local community in need, reports NBC4 Washington. The program launched in April and has so far saved more than 2,000 toiletry bottles from the trash. As NBC4 reports:

“We started this in April, and we have already collected 2,300 items. We’ve diverted 1,160 pounds of waste from landfills … and that doesn’t include what we’re counting in August,” said Courtnie Gore, social impact specialist for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

Employees with the airports authority sort through all of the toiletries one day a month.

The program sees airport employees sort through hundreds of abandoned bottles every month. Once deemed safe to hand over to someone in need, the toiletries are donated to charities like Northwest Community Food, which NBC4 reports is a nonprofit that helps individuals and families with fresh produce and hygiene products.

TSA’s 3-1-1 rule has been in force since 2006. Photo: John Moore (Getty Images)

Through the program, workers at RNA have diverted 1,160 pounds of waste from landfill, reports Newsweek. This is just from the trash collected at one airport in America, the TSA is confiscating liquids at more than 500 other sites across the Land of the Free.

Thankfully, another airport will soon join the fight to cut this never-ending stream of waste as Newsweek adds that the Donate, Don’t Discard program will soon expand to Dulles International Airport as well.

It’s not just liquids that are confiscated by TSA officers at airports, we’ve rounded up some of the weirdest items to pass through airport security right here. The agency also confiscated a record number of guns in airports last year.