Practical Zero Waste Ideas For The Bathroom
If you want to calculate how much waste you produce in your bathroom, pay attention to what your trash can looks like at the end of the week. How many plastic bottles and containers do you find yourself throwing away? If that number is pretty high, it's time for some zero waste bathroom swaps. Let's turn your bathroom into a sustainable one!
Here are some of our recommended products that will help you reduce waste in one of the most wasteful rooms in the house. All of the following products are sustainable and Eco-friendly alternatives to make your bathroom a place that Mother Earth will be proud of!
Shampoo and Conditioner Bars
Take a moment to think about your hair care routine or even count how many plastic bottles it currently takes to wash your hair. You might find shampoo, conditioner, a hair mask, and a leave-in conditioner. Well, what if we told you that we have a cheaper, healthier, and less wasteful alternative to traditional shampoo and conditioner?
The eco-friendly alternative is to opt for shampoo and conditioner bars! It's been calculated that the number of shampoo bottles that are thrown away in the U.S could completely fill 1,164 football fields. This is mostly because plastic containers are a form of unsustainable packaging, and only 1 in 5 people actually recycle items from their bathroom.
With these sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner bars, you're reducing the amount of plastic waste from your shower and treating your hair with natural ingredients! This is one of the best ways to start your zero waste journey because they cost far less than your average shampoo and conditioner containers!
Reusable Makeup Remover Pads
Let's talk about one of the biggest threats to our environment, makeup remover wipes. These little guys might be small in size, but any kind of wet wipe takes up a massive amount of space in our landfills. This is simply because they're convenient enough for almost anyone to use, whether as a makeup remover, kitchen wipe, baby wipe, or disinfectant.
Unfortunately, none of these are biodegradable. When it's time for makeup removal, the best alternative is to switch to reusable makeup pads that leave zero traces of waste behind! You can reuse these pads for years; they're made from biodegradable fibers and comes with a washing bag and bamboo container!
Metal Razors
Sometimes we just aren't aware of our daily habits' actual cost on our environment. Let's look at shaving, for example. Plastic disposable razors can be used about 6-9 times before the blade weakens, and bacteria begins to build-up. As you can imagine, this is yet another unsustainable practice that leads to billions of hazardous material piling up in landfills.
As a society, we need to ditch the single-use mindset and adopt habits with the planet in mind. A metal razor is the perfect solution because it's made from stainless steel, has 100% recyclable blades, and is a lot more sturdy than your plastic disposable!
Metal razors, also known as safety razors, were replaced with disposable razors in the early 1900s. Fast-forward to modern-day; we're now dealing with a pollution and climate crisis that's causing a serious threat to humanity. So with these razors, we're going back to pre-plastic methods that happen to be much more sustainable!
Plastic-Free Toothbrushes
Yes, there is such a thing as a plastic-free toothbrush! They're made from bamboo, meaning they're biodegradable and will return to the Earth in three short months after being thrown away. On the other hand, toothbrushes made from plastic takes about 1,000 years to decompose completely.
These bamboo toothbrushes save our landfills from being covered in plastic, but we need more people to hop on board to make this the standard toothbrush. As of right now, over a billion plastic toothbrushes are heading to the landfill every year, and that's just in the U.S. Next time you need to replace your brush, opt for one with a bamboo handle because it works the same, minus all of the waste!
Plastic-Free Toothpaste
Another thing you probably never heard of is plastic-free toothpaste! Most traditional toothpaste that we've used for years, like Crest, come in bottles that we can't recycle because it's made of sheets of plastic pressed together with a layer of aluminum.
Thankfully, we have an alternative for this so that you never have to buy another plastic tube of toothpaste! This eco-friendly toothpaste is made from 100% recyclable metal and made using only natural ingredients, but it gets even better. At the end of the tube, it has a key feature so that you can twist all of the toothpaste out of the bottle instead of going through that annoying stage of squeezing it with all your force!
You can now brush your teeth without anything going to waste, including the extra paste at the end of the tube or plastic once you throw it out!
Plastic-Free Hairbrush
Take a look at all the hairbrushes in your collection. Are any of them NOT made of plastic? Chances are, they ALL made of plastic! With millions of plastic hairbrushes being tossed after a few years of use, it adds up to a massive amount of plastic trash that, you guessed it, sits in the landfill for thousands of years. Imagine how your brush from your teenage years looks in the landfill, and you multiply that by hundreds of millions, and you can visualize the problem.
Thankfully, there are other excellent options besides plastic for your hairbrush. This bamboo hairbrush is made using sustainable bamboo for the frame and bristles! It's just as useful and longlasting as the plastic version but won't pollute the planet. The natural rubber air-cushion is also designed to decompose after time and allows the bristles to flex as they pass through your hair for the ultimate zero-waste brush.
Biodegradable Floss
To complete your entire dental hygiene routine, opt for a biodegradable floss. Traditional floss might be great for your teeth, but it's pretty awful for the environment. It's packaged in a bunch of plastic that needs to be repurchased every few weeks. Not to mention the floss itself is made from nylon, a fiber that's not biodegradable and will take hundreds of years to decompose.
This floss has completely changed the game because it's 100% biodegradable, packaged in a glass jar, and can be re-ordered without the jar so that we can continue to spare some resources. This is the perfect example of what a sustainable practice looks like. It's a system that can last a lifetime because there's absolutely no harsh environmental impact by refilling this biodegradable floss!
Solid Deodorant
Here's one bathroom essential that comes with tons of myths that we'll debunk for you: eco-friendly and natural deodorant! We all wear deodorant, and we certainly expect some things from it, right?
First, we expect to smell great. And to no surprise, we actually don't need tons of harsh chemicals to smell fresh, despite common belief. All we need is a fragrance made from blending the right amount of essential oils.
Second, we think we need to use antiperspirants. However, while they do stop the sweat, it's actually doing more internal damage to your body. Antiperspirants are designed to prevent the body's toxins from being naturally released. After years of research, scientists found that they are linked to breast cancer due to aluminum usage. Even with research like this, tons of antiperspirant tubes are being sold on the market or deodorants combined with an antiperspirant!
Lastly, we expect a specific type of packaging from our deodorant. Typically, it's a twist-up tube because that's what we're used to. However, these plastic tubes take years to decompose and are not recyclable. Even if you went through the process of dismantling the tube, not all of the materials can be recycled!
With this solid deodorant, you don't have to worry about any of this. It's plastic-free, aluminum and paraben-free, and packed with essential oils for a fresh fragrance. And if by chance, you've been using an antiperspirant, we have a detox bar to help clean out the pores that have been previously blocked. With all that being said, it's time to ditch the old deodorant!
Shave Soap
When using a metal razor, it's super important to shave with a substance that helps you avoid any cuts. You're most likely used to shaving cream, but we have something better: a shaving bar!
Shaving creams typically come in plastic bottles, but beyond that, the cream is made out of ingredients that cannot be dissolved in water. Both shaving creams and gels impact animals' and plants' growth since they pollute our water sources with harmful chemicals.
Opt for the cleanest and most eco-friendly shave by using this shaving bar. Made with clay content, it can be used as a multipurpose body soap, hand soap, and shaving cream. The clay makes it the perfect soap to shave with because it reduces skin irritation!
Bar Soap
As you can imagine, body wash is another major pollutant since we each go through those plastic bottles quickly. Bar soap is the most sustainable and natural way to clean your body.
It's made from natural ingredients to give you the softest, most nourished skin of your life. More importantly, most bar soaps don't contain palm oil, an ingredient used by many generic soap brands that heavily impact deforestation and climate change. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the amount of tropical rainforest that gets cleared for palm oil production is around 300 football fields per hour.
While navigating your way through your zero waste journey, make sure to avoid soap bottles at all costs, and opt for the bar version instead. It saves you money and saves the rainforest!
Soap Bag
You know those colorful poufs that we use to exfoliate with? Often called loofahs, these poufs are made from plastic then gathered into looped mesh sections to create a ball shape. They sit for hundreds of years in a landfill because they need to be replaced every few weeks due to bacteria growth. If not the landfill, there's also a chance that they end up in the ocean, significantly affecting marine life.
We know there's nothing better than scrubbing away all the dead skin cells, so the best option is to switch to a soap bag made from plant-fibers! All you need to do is place the soap bar into the bag, pull the drawstring shut, and then scrub your body as you would with a loofah. Now you can exfoliate, cleanse and use it as a travel bag to carry your zero-waste soap! Plus, a natural fiber soap bag can be hung in the shower to allow your soap to dry, saving your soap from dissolving in standing water!
Cotton Swabs
Cotton swabs are a necessity in today's bathroom routine, but they are also one of the most common plastic-pollutants as well. Back in the day, when cotton swabs were first invented, they were made of wood sticks with cotton on the ends. Nowadays, they are most commonly made with extruded plastic that is not sustainable. Every one of these plastic swabs ever used is still sitting in a landfill somewhere, or worse, above ground causing problems for wildlife.
When shopping for a new box of swabs, make sure you look closely to make sure they are made using natural materials that breakdown and return to the Earth. These bamboo cotton swabs are made using all-natural bamboo and all-natural cotton, so you can be sure that your cotton swab will biodegrade. This sustainable option can even be composted!
Summary
We, Eco-conscious consumers, know that the bathroom is a high source of plastic pollution. There are zero-waste options for almost every item in your home, including the bathroom. From shampoo to cotton swabs, consider choosing a more sustainable option next time you need hygiene supplies!
