5 Eco Friendly Alternatives to Your Must-Have Bathroom Essentials
4 Minute Read
The Average American goes through 656 bars of soap, 198 bottles of shampoo, and 156 toothbrushes in a lifetime (National Geographic).
The way I see it, we have 2 clear options here….either stop being so damn clean 😉 or switch out our plastic-ridden toiletries for greener options. Now, rule #1 of sustainable living is: use what you got till you can’t squeeze anymore juice out of it. THEN, find a sustainable replacement. So here are 5 Swaps you can make in the bathroom to lower your waste (once your current essentials run out). And just a heads up, these alternatives require no more effort than the ones you currently have.
Reusable Wipes and Cotton Rounds
This one is probably more for the ladies: swapping out cotton balls and facial wipes for reusable ones is a super simple switch that you’ll barely even notice. The cotton rounds below are made by the Creekside Kid who has an amazing Etsy shop—everything is hand made and machine washable. Simply use the wipes and throw them in the laundry. Its the exact same thing you were doing before, except you never have to buy replacements.
Package-Free Soap
These Good soaps are just $2 a pop at Whole Foods and you can buy them with zero packaging!! Plus they have tons of different scents (Irish spring ain’t got shit on this stuff!!) If you can’t get a “naked soap”, try one wrapped in recyclable paper. **Farmer’s markets usually have a great selection of artisanal soaps made with minimal packaging and ingredients.
Shampoo Bar
Who said shampoo has to come in liquid form? What if it came in a bar, just like our soap? Based on the current US population, if we all switched to shampoo bars, we could eliminate 63.9 Billion empty shampoo bottles from going to the landfill. I wanna make that happen, don’t you?
The SoapWorks has a shampoo bar that costs about $2 and is sold in many local health shops, while a Lush Shampoo bar runs about $12 buckeroos. Here is J.R. Liggett’s Shampoo bar, which you can get on Amazon. People love it and it won’t break the bank.
JR Liggett’s Shampoo Bar
see all my bathroom essentials
Metal Safety Razor
The average cost of shaving with a disposable or cartridge razor (like Bic/Gillette) is over $100 a year (Sharpologist). That’s a lot! And we haven’t even talked about how wasteful those types of razors are. Their blades are designed to go dull after a few weeks, which is why “over 2 billion disposable plastic razors are thrown out each year in the U.S. alone” (Albatross).
So let’s talk solutions: how about a razor that’s less expensive than disposables, made entirely out of metal, lasts a lifetime, has insanely cheap replacement blades (15¢ a pop!) and is recyclable? Sounds to good to be true, right? Our grandparents (and maybe even our parents) used metal safety razors…and today, we’re bringing it back!
I use one by Albatross, which comes with 10 high-quality razor blades, and the replacements are super cheap (as mentioned above). The safety feature on top of the blade protects you from cutting yourself, just like your disposable blade would. Here’s what it looks like:
I’ve saved the best for last…
Bamboo Toothbrush
This is one of the easiest swaps you can make to your bathroom routine. Bamboo toothbrushes are equivalent to plastic toothbrushes in every aspect (including price!), except for one thing…they’re compostable. My personal favorite is Woobamboo, but Brush with Bamboo is another great option which comes in completely compostable packaging, even the wrapper. There’s no plastic B.S. here!
get my dentist approved eco-essentials
What’s your favorite bathroom essential?
Have you found a sustainable alternative?
Thanks for sharing all these useful tips, didnt know about the shampoo soap, will definitely try that out and also the bamboo toothbrush! Its incredible how ignorant we actually are and dont know or dont see all the things that are in front of us and how much we can do with so little effort to live more sustainable.
Hey Aleksandra! I’m so happy you found a few useful tips. I found that once we gain an awareness in one aspect of our lives (with the environment but it probably applies to anything), that awareness starts to poke its head into other aspects of our lives and then we start to rethink how we do things. Becoming more environmentally aware tends to sneak its way throughout your daily life…in a good way! 🙂
I had very long hair for a while and I was going through amazing amounts of shampoo and conditioner. At some point, I realized it probably would add up to 20 bottles or more a year! I switched to bar shampoo and I find it is just fine for my hair. I was using apple cider vinegar as a rinse with silk proteins, but I overdid the ACV and fried my hair a bit. Dilution is key!
Hey Amery, I’ve been using shampoo bars for about 3 months now and I absolutely love it. Some people say their hair gets a film after a while of using them, but I have not found that to be the case, but perhaps its the specific shampoo bar I use. I also use ACV about once a month or so. I’m curious which shampoo bar you use. I have a few options for shampoo bars and ACV up on the website. You can check them out here if you’re interested 🙂
Hi! Have you tried a waterpik instead of floss? It’s a one time buy but no more plastic! My dentist recommended it and said it worked better than floss and was more gentle on your gums AND yay for me is that no more plastic!
Hi Karla!
I haven’t tried the waterpik but my parents use one and they totally rave about it! My dad says that he can no longer go without his 🙂
Definitely something for me to think about!