10 Ways to Reduce your Bathroom Waste
Most of us underestimate the amount of waste we produce in our bathroom alone. Marketers lead us to believe that we need many different products. One for our hair, body, shaving, hands, and even different products to clean our shower, toilet, and sink! Here are 10 ways you can reduce your waste in the bathroom:
1.Plastic-free Shampoo & Conditioner| Bar shampoo with minimal packaging or recyclable/compostable packaging is better than buying huge plastic jugs. Companies like Lush and Ethique are leaders in the shampoo bar world. If you want traditional liquid shampoo in a bottle check out Plaine Products. Use the bottles, wash them out, and ship them back to be refilled and reused!
2. Bar soap = Body Wash & Shaving Cream|One bar of soap can be used to wash your body, shave, and wash your hands. There is no need to have different plastic bottles for each of these things. Get resourceful and explore what works for you!
3. Safety Razor > Disposable Razor| The blades of safety razors can be recycled unlike plastic disposable razors that are thrown away. Just collect the blades in an old soup can and dispose of them when the container fills up.
4. Paper Wrapped Toilet Paper| This reduces the plastic you are consuming since the toilet paper is wrapped in either recyclable or compostable paper on the outside. You can buy individual roles from most supermarkets, or buy in bulk from stores online. Check out companies like Whogivesacrap and Reel.
5. Ditch Q-Tips| The packaging itself says not to use in your ears as they can damage your ear drum. If you use them to remove makeup, consider switching to reusable cotton pads or a washable cloth material. If you need your swabs check out Last Swab — a company that creates reusable silicon Q-tips and make up remover swabs.
6. Multi-Purpose bathroom cleaner| You don’t NEED a different product for the tub, floors, sink, mirror, and counters. Use a multi-purpose cleaner for most of your cleaning needs instead. Check out Dr. Bronner’s Multi-purpose cleaner and Blueland products.
Recycling is not the goal — reducing your waste is.
7. Low-Waste deodorant| Companies such as Myro and Humankind have refillable deodorant to reduce the amount of plastic that gets thrown away. If you are a DIY person, there are also tons of natural recipes out there.
8. Low waste Lotions| Switch to refillable lotions from Plaine Products, or simply use your favorite combination of natural oils (Coconut, Jojoba, Rosehip, etc.) to rub onto your body after a shower. Less chemicals on your body and less waste in the landfills.
9. Compostable or Rechargeable Toothbrush| Plastic toothbrushes take hundreds of years to biodegrade in the landfills. Switching to bamboo brushes means they can be composted at the end of their life span. If you need an electric toothbrush like me, go for it. It’s better to switch out the tiny toothbrush heads every couple months instead of throwing out the base of the brush as well.
10. . Toothy Tabs or DIY Toothpaste| Coconut oil, baking soda, and peppermint essential oil are the most common way people DIY thy tabs from Lush or recyclable toothpaste tubes made from aluminum instead of the traditionally aluminum/plastic mix. If this sounds overboard, no worries, just go back to what works best for you. Always remember the goal is progress not perfection.
