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Written by Deb Kingsbury
Living on a 36-acre off-grid property in northern Arizona, Deb and her husband Jeremy embrace sustainable living through solar power, rainwater harvesting, and a passive solar home built with recycled polystyrene block. A freelance writer and editor, Deb grows food in raised beds and a greenhouse and is an avid hiker and backpacker. A long-time search & rescue volunteer, she has published two novels and previously homesteaded on the East Coast.
Zero waste isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a philosophy. It’s about minimizing waste production and doing our part, however small, to reduce our collective human impact on the world. It's basically about more sustainable living. Now, one could argue (and many people do) that nothing is truly "zero" waste, that there's always something that ends up in a landfill or otherwise tossed somewhere along the line in making, selling, and shipping a new product, not to mention the energy consumed and pollution generated. Recycling isn't 100% zero waste, either, of course. True, true. But there are definitely ways to go about manufacturing and consumption that create much less waste than others. So, I prefer not to pick too many nits on the "zero" part. So, instead of buying a new plastic bottle filled with liquid soap each time you run out, you get a solid shampoo or dish soap bar, use it up, and instead of discarding a bottle, you've already shredded and composted the small recycled cardboard box it came in, recycled it again, or used it as a firestarter in the wood stove. Voilà! That’s zero waste in action. Repairing that old mop instead of buying a new one? Yep, that’s part of it, too. The 5 Rs are our secret sauce: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot (that last one means compost). So, my fellow sustainable living enthusiast, let’s enjoy this zero-waste adventure together. Whether you’re transitioning to solid soaps or want to try laundry detergent sheets in a cardboard dispenser, every small step counts.
Zero-Waste Solid Dish Soap
We've tried several brands of natural dish soap, reusing the same original container (any old dish will do) and a scrub brush we already had, and have found a favorite: Solid Round Dishwashing Soap from Lora's Beauty. It comes in seven scents and in unscented, too. One bar lasts us for over a month, sometimes as long as six weeks, of daily use.
We've tried several brands of solid dish soaps in zero-waste packaging, including the natural soap bars from Simplut via Amazon, which were also good, but we kept buying different ones until we found one we liked enough to call it our favorite and reorder.
So, what is it about Lora's product that puts it at the top of our list, you ask?
It suds up and cleans really well, including super greasy dishes, pots, and pans, without leaving a residue.
The price is better than others we've tried, given how long each bar lasts for us. We order enough each time to get free shipping, too.
It smells great, and that goes for all the scents.
Like all zero-waste products should, it comes in a small recyclable, burnable, compostable box and a little packing paper.
Lora makes these soaps by hand and sources her ingredients from local companies. She buys organic, too.
So far, with each order, Lora has sent a little sample of another of her natural, zero-waste soaps, like a piece of a shampoo bar. We like samples. :)
We order Lora's dish soap and other zero-waste soap products from her Lora's Beauty Etsy shop. Overall, Etsy is a great place to find similar zero-waste, handmade, natural products from small companies.
Zero-Waste Laundry Detergent Sheets
Be gone, big bottles and large, drippy plastic dispensers of liquid laundry soap! We have fully embraced the laundry detergent sheet lifestyle, which is much more compact, much less messy, and much less wasteful. It's also economical and travel-friendly.
Okay, so we haven't tried multiple brands like we did with the zero-waste dish soaps, but why change when we're very satisfied with the one we have? And we've had this 80-count box of CLEARALIF laundry detergent sheets since we ordered it nearly a year ago. (Each sheet is perforated, so you can use half a sheet per load.) Besides the zero-waste-friendly packaging you see here, we also like:
How well these clean our clothes, which is pretty important in a laundry soap
The very mild scent
That they have no skin-irritating ingredients
That each sheet is pre-cut and pre-measured, meaning no more measuring cup needed
That they're compact, so they take up little space in our small laundry room
That they're compact (again) and easily carried, including being airplane-friendly if we want to pack a few for doing laundry on a trip
You can order these in single 80-count boxes or multi-packs of two or three and save a bit per box that way.
Zero-Waste Shampoo and Hair Conditioner Bars
When you've been using liquid shampoo and conditioner in plastic bottles for decades, solid hair care products that come in cardboard boxes take a little getting used to, but now I'd never go back. (My husband is bald, so I'm just speaking for myself here.)
Since switching over to zero-waste hair care, I've tried several brands, including ANIHANA's Grapefruit & Chamomile Shampoo and Grapefruit & Lime Conditioner Bars, which I liked, and products from other zero-waste companies. While some of the shampoos have been sudsier than others and some of the conditioners... well, more conditioning, all have been anywhere from good to great. But I've settled on EcoRoots Solid Shampoo Bars (I kept typing "bras," but that's for another post) and their Zero-Waste Conditioner Bars as my favorites so far. In addition to how well the shampoo suds up and the conditioner works on my curly, tangly mess of hair, I also like:
The price, considering how long these last, which is at least three months each for me
The scents and number of options
That they're handmade with plant extracts and natural essential oils
That they're silicon-, palm oil-, and paraben-free (I had to look up paraben, too; they're chemicals often used in cosmetics.)
Like many zero-waste products, solid shampoos and conditioners are still hard to find locally, if at all, where we live, so I continue to order them online and get enough for free shipping. If I eventually find them locally, maybe even at the farmer's market, I'll buy that way instead.
A Final Word on Our Favorite Zero-Waste Products
One of the reasons we prefer these zero-waste soap and cleaning products is their eco-friendly packaging. Unlike plastic, which can take hundreds of years to decompose and often ends up in the oceans, cardboard and paper packaging are more biodegradable and generally take less energy to recycle. So, not only are these products effective at cleaning ourselves and our homes, they also help, at least a little, to clean up our planet. For more of our recommendations under the sustainable living product category, check out Use This, Not That: Durable Reusable Products to Reduce Waste.
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