When I think about the bathroom, a lot of ‘use & toss’ things come to mind. Almost every standard bathroom routine consists of disposable items which together, adds up to a lot of waste in landfill. In recent times, a lot more eco-friendly and reusable options have hit the market, encouraging better shopping choices. Today, I’m sharing with you 10 ideas for a greener, plastic-free, low waste bathroom.
Before we get started, I want to note that when it comes to swapping to more eco-friendly options, it’s normal for it to take some time - months or even years. Zero waste is a slow journey and it’s important to use up what you already have so as not to waste those things. Once those items have reached their end of life, then consider replacing with a more greener option. And when it comes to creating a greener bathroom, even making a couple of changes is better than nothing. If some swaps don’t work for you, that’s okay, keep keeping an eye out and maybe something new and more eco-friendly might hit the market that works better for you.
Reusable Make Up Remover
Instead of using disposable cotton rounds and throwing them into landfill, you can opt for reusable makeup rounds or make up wipes. You just use them like a regular cotton round and once it’s dirty, you can place it in a little mesh laundry bag and toss it in the machine when it’s full. I’m really excited to be incorporating these into my routine once I finish my remaining disposable cotton rounds and have a little wash bag in my bathroom where I keep all the used ones until I’m doing a laundry load.
Bamboo Cotton Buds
Bamboo cotton buds are a great eco-friendly alternative to your typical cotton buds which are made of little plastic sticks. I personally still have plastic cotton buds to use up at home but once I’m out, I’ll be switching to bamboo cotton buds. However, as I typically use cotton buds to remove make up, I’m going to try use them as less as possible and opt for my reusable make up remover rounds instead.
Back to Simple Razor
Instead of using your typical drugstore razors which have plastic components, you can opt for plastic-free razor. These guys make eco-friendly stainless steel razors with a pivoting head and are stocked in plenty of stockists around the world. The razors come with lifetime warranty (they’re meant to be used for life!) as well as bulk blade packs which you can repurchase to refill your razor with. As for disposing old razor blades, you can get a little blade disposer tin to keep the blades in until you are ready to recycle them. For something that meant to be used for a lifetime, the upfront cost works out to be a great deal.
DIY Skin Care
If you love the idea of customising your own skincare, there are many out there. At our store, we select the most natural ingredients that really work to your skin. Every products we display, has been test by an experiences license esthetician. Among the Flowers stocks their own range of skin care products/ingredients in glass bottles which you can use to mix and match to create your own needs. So things like Hydrosol can be mixed with Clay to create an exfoliator, or used on its own as a toner. Jojoba oil or Rosehip oil can be used as a moisturizer, or mixed with clay to become a face mask!
Body Soap & Hand Soap Bars
Instead of using liquid body wash and hand soap in a bottle, you can consider using ‘package free’ body and hand soap bars. I remember I grew up using bar soap and as I got older, I started buying liquid body wash (and I have no idea why). Maybe the fancy packaging and range changed my consumer purchasing decisions, compared to the boring looking bar soap that would always feel more drying on my skin. These days, there are so many more options when it comes to bar soap. They’re a lot more nourishing and you can find lots of local makers to support, as well as plenty of luxury and artisan options too. Plus the fact that you can get them package free - the most important! I’m getting back into these and have successfully switched our bathroom hand soap to bar soap instead of a pump bottle for a year now with no going back!
Shampoo Bar
Did you know that you can get shampoo bars as well? If you’re interested in transitioning into a plastic-free hair care routine, then you can consider a growing range of shampoo bar brands out there. These bars are just like body soap bars but are made for the hair and you can even get little travel tins for them so that you can bring them with you on your travels.
Bamboo Toothbrush
If you’re sick of using and replacing plastic toothbrushes, you can consider a bamboo toothbrush. Bamboo toothbrushes are made with bamboo handles and nylon bristles (the latter of which is not compostable but is generally the most low waste you can get for now). When you’re done with your bamboo toothbrush, simply snap it in half and compost the handle and throw the nylon bristles in the bin.
Natural Care Products
When it comes to things like hair brushes, dry body brushes and the like, these days you find a growing range of plastic-free options such as ones made out of bamboo like this hair brush and dry body brush I found on Seed & Sprout. Also, things like foot files that might come on plastic handles can also be replaced by more low-waste alternatives like natural pumice stones!
Comentarios