Plastic-free products?
March 6, 2024 9:17 AM Subscribe
I'd like to buy products that are 100% biodegradable and/or rustable and/or melt-downable. That is, no plastics. Wood, paper, glass, metal, ceramics. Even the packaging.
Some products have been hard to find:
Some products have been hard to find:
- Laundry detergent. Every box of powdered detergent I've purchased has the detergent wrapped in a plastic bag inside. They have less plastic than buying a jug of the liquid stuff, but can I get it to zero?
- Dish soap. It always comes in a plastic squeeze bottle, and even "eco" brands use recycled plastic instead of biodegradable plastic.
- Tissues. When bought in bulk, the individual boxes are wrapped in plastic, and the tissue boxes use plastic at the top as part of the dispenser.
- Pre-washed salad greens, carrots, etc. The tubs or bags are always plastic, and not biodegradable. Is there a way to get more convenient than purchasing and processing lettuce, cabbage, spinach, carrots, etc. myself but avoiding plastic?
- Exercise mats and anti-fatigue mats. I'd enjoy finding pure cork and natural rubber variations of these. I've found some yoga mats that are pure cork, but zero anti-fatigue mats, and would appreciate any personal anecdotes or reviews, since they're niche and the yoga mats I've found seem expensive.
Best answer: Dish soap - You don't really have to use soap labeled as for dishes
Tissues - cut a worn-out garment into individual squares. Do hem the edges! Otherwise you'll get strings all over your laundry when you wash them.
Mats - look at the eco-footprint of importing rubber. Smell some natural rubber to make sure you want that in your house.
One idea: look at making a version of a "sprung floor" out of wood - but notice the costs of using power tools, transporting lumber, etc.
OR: look at anti-fatigue shoes, and do yoga on a floor that's comfortable due to thick carpet, or do it outside on the soft ground.
Pre-washed greens - the packaging is the only "reasonable" way to keep greens clean after washing; anything else will be heavy. You could bring your own containers to a restaurant with a salad bar, or pay someone to come to your house to clean them. Or, if you were trusting enough, skip the grocery store and distributor and get produce directly from a local farm -- but chances are they use a lot of plastic to protect the crops, even organic ones.
Really the best thing _is_ to wash them at home, yourself or someone else working for you.
Or buy them in the form of seeds or bunches with roots, and grow them yourself. You can decide whether to wash them after that. Hydroponics is an option, but all of the water pumps I've found use plastic.
posted by amtho at 9:30 AM on March 6 [2 favorites]
Tissues - cut a worn-out garment into individual squares. Do hem the edges! Otherwise you'll get strings all over your laundry when you wash them.
Mats - look at the eco-footprint of importing rubber. Smell some natural rubber to make sure you want that in your house.
One idea: look at making a version of a "sprung floor" out of wood - but notice the costs of using power tools, transporting lumber, etc.
OR: look at anti-fatigue shoes, and do yoga on a floor that's comfortable due to thick carpet, or do it outside on the soft ground.
Pre-washed greens - the packaging is the only "reasonable" way to keep greens clean after washing; anything else will be heavy. You could bring your own containers to a restaurant with a salad bar, or pay someone to come to your house to clean them. Or, if you were trusting enough, skip the grocery store and distributor and get produce directly from a local farm -- but chances are they use a lot of plastic to protect the crops, even organic ones.
Really the best thing _is_ to wash them at home, yourself or someone else working for you.
Or buy them in the form of seeds or bunches with roots, and grow them yourself. You can decide whether to wash them after that. Hydroponics is an option, but all of the water pumps I've found use plastic.
posted by amtho at 9:30 AM on March 6 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Wood, paper, glass, metal, ceramics
I think this is a list of things that are OK to use.
posted by amtho at 9:31 AM on March 6 [5 favorites]
I think this is a list of things that are OK to use.
posted by amtho at 9:31 AM on March 6 [5 favorites]
Best answer: I'm not sure if it's location specific but the Tide powdered laundry detergent I buy is just powdered detergent in a cardboard box. No plastic at all. I get it at Target.
posted by cooker girl at 9:32 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
posted by cooker girl at 9:32 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Response by poster:
I also didn't really make explicit that biodegradable plastics are also fine for this.
posted by Number Used Once at 9:39 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Wood, paper, glass, metal, ceramicsYes, that's correct. Those were meant to be examples of materials that aren't plastics, which... well, I don't know why I felt compelled to type them out. I imagine everyone has a good handle on what is a plastic and what isn't.
I think this is a list of things that are OK to use.
I also didn't really make explicit that biodegradable plastics are also fine for this.
posted by Number Used Once at 9:39 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Best answer: If you're in a reasonably urban and/or crunchy area--have you searched to see if there's a refillery anywhere near you? They're bring-your-own container places for things like dish/laundry soap, detergent, personal care stuff like shampoo and conditioner, etc.
For greens and such, our farm share packages them in compostable plastic (but the bags are sealed with a sticker). Again, potentially something to look into if you haven't already.
posted by damayanti at 9:43 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
For greens and such, our farm share packages them in compostable plastic (but the bags are sealed with a sticker). Again, potentially something to look into if you haven't already.
posted by damayanti at 9:43 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Laundry sheets like Earth Breeze come in a cardboard sleeve.
posted by myelin sheath at 9:46 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
posted by myelin sheath at 9:46 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I buy my laundry detergent and dish soap in bulk - I bring my container to the store and fill it up. There are dedicated "zero waste" shops where you can do this but also a lot of Whole Foods/coops/natural foods stores offer bulk cleaning products.
Tissues: the long boxes where the tissues lie flat (they don't puff up from the top) and the part that you punch out wraps around the side don't have any plastic inside. Puffs Basic is one example. Or just use handkerchiefs or toilet paper.
On the anti-fatigue mat front, you might have luck just asking around for old latex or cork yoga mats. I have a once-expensive latex yoga mat that has holes in it where my hands and feet go during downward dog but there's plenty of squish left in the middle. Usage patterns are pretty different for yoga mats and anti-fatigue mats.
Prewashed veggies is a tough one for me. It feels like so much more work to buy bunches of greens and wash/cut/etc.! I got nothing besides the aforementioned "salad bar that lets you bring your own container" (note that they probably fill the salad bar from a plastic bag of greens).
posted by mskyle at 9:46 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Tissues: the long boxes where the tissues lie flat (they don't puff up from the top) and the part that you punch out wraps around the side don't have any plastic inside. Puffs Basic is one example. Or just use handkerchiefs or toilet paper.
On the anti-fatigue mat front, you might have luck just asking around for old latex or cork yoga mats. I have a once-expensive latex yoga mat that has holes in it where my hands and feet go during downward dog but there's plenty of squish left in the middle. Usage patterns are pretty different for yoga mats and anti-fatigue mats.
Prewashed veggies is a tough one for me. It feels like so much more work to buy bunches of greens and wash/cut/etc.! I got nothing besides the aforementioned "salad bar that lets you bring your own container" (note that they probably fill the salad bar from a plastic bag of greens).
posted by mskyle at 9:46 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Ecos laundry detergent recently showed up in my local stores, and I've been trying it out with decent results. They're dissolvable sheets of detergent that come in a cardboard box.
For tissues, I think your best solution is the old-fashioned one: handkerchiefs. A generous number of plain white, easily bleachable squares works well -- these are easiest to sanitize. You could also go with colorful versions and use a color-safe bleach or sanitizer. I'm finding plenty of listings on eco-friendly/zero-waste type stores as well as on Etsy.
posted by ourobouros at 9:47 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
For tissues, I think your best solution is the old-fashioned one: handkerchiefs. A generous number of plain white, easily bleachable squares works well -- these are easiest to sanitize. You could also go with colorful versions and use a color-safe bleach or sanitizer. I'm finding plenty of listings on eco-friendly/zero-waste type stores as well as on Etsy.
posted by ourobouros at 9:47 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Pre-washed salad greens, carrots, etc.
Almost all of the fancy grocery stores near me have some kind of salad bar / hot table scenario and the packages for that are now generally those sort of paper sort of cardboard biodegradable beige takeaway boxes. I can't promise that shit didn't come out of plastic in the first place, though.
I imagine it's not a cheap way to buy lettuce, but interestingly, it is a cheap way to buy bacon. My sister-in-law used to fill one of those take-out containers with pre-cooked bacon from the Whole Foods hot table because it was wildly cheaper than per piece than buying bacon and cooking it yourself.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:47 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Almost all of the fancy grocery stores near me have some kind of salad bar / hot table scenario and the packages for that are now generally those sort of paper sort of cardboard biodegradable beige takeaway boxes. I can't promise that shit didn't come out of plastic in the first place, though.
I imagine it's not a cheap way to buy lettuce, but interestingly, it is a cheap way to buy bacon. My sister-in-law used to fill one of those take-out containers with pre-cooked bacon from the Whole Foods hot table because it was wildly cheaper than per piece than buying bacon and cooking it yourself.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:47 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Haha, yes, Whole Foods hot bar bacon is the best deal in town!
posted by mskyle at 9:50 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
posted by mskyle at 9:50 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Best answer: For laundry, try detergent sheets. I believe the ones I have are Tru Earth brand but there has recently been an explosion of options in the detergent sheet space. I don’t really have intense laundry demands and have a great washer so I am fine with whatever, but you may have specific requirements. Most laundry detergent sheets come in a cardboard envelope. There are some concerns about the different things used to bind the detergent and keep it stable in sheet form, but the comparison to transportation and disposal of heavy water based plastic jugs really balances that out. Not sure about the comparison between washing powder and detergent sheets though - plastic wrap might mean massively less weight and thus less fuel used for transportation, cumulatively.
There are many options for bar form dish soap. A widely available classic is the dr bronners bar soap, which I find much too harsh for my skin but definitely acceptable for dishes and pretty good at cutting grease. They come wrapped in paper. You can use a natural loofa to do the scrubbing and then compost it when it gets gross if you want to fully commit to the bit. There are also many smaller companies that will sell you a fancy refillable glass or aluminum bottle and milk carton style refills for different household cleaning liquids, including dish soap. I have tried a fair few and I’m mostly not a fan because of the price and effectiveness and smell intensities, but plenty of people I know love them. The brand I have liked best is Blueland.
For tissues if you are going fully super intense eco green etc etc then the real option is handkerchiefs. Handkerchiefs combined with bleachable cotton rounds for stuff like makeup removal and wound care. But then you get into obscure calculations - does the plastic around your bulk tissues outweigh the water usage in washing handkerchiefs and cotton rounds? It depends on the resources and their cultivation in your area - I’m in the PNW and luckily we have a lot of water, so washable reusable fabric items make sense, but if I were visiting my parents in south Texas some plastic would be preferable to extra laundry, especially hot water.
There is a similar kind of rubric of calculation for produce. That copious amount of plastic around your veggies is annoying but it decreases food spoilage and therefore food waste enormously. Where I am there are companies that specialize in local produce, small farms and co-ops and local tiny specialty producers, and delivering them directly to consumers - I get a twice monthly delivery from Pacific Coast Harvest and love them - but even they sometimes deliver stuff in plastic, and store things in plastic. The only way to circumvent this completely involves stuff like eating exclusively local things that have not had to be transported more than a few miles, growing your own food garden, choosing which vendors at the farmers market to patronize and bringing all your own containers with premeasured tare weights… all very intense stuff. So yeah, it’s right now a matter of balancing your priorities. With something like cabbage, it’s a bit easier because they are so easy to store and you are more likely to find it without plastic and also be able to keep it at home without plastic for longer. But something quick to rot like lettuce means more time in prepping it at home, getting less of it so you can store it without plastic and use it all before it goes bad, and that means more travel to get more if it more often.
My point is, these things are really difficult to navigate in today’s world. There are lots of innovations happening in packaging right now, so keep looking. But also don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Use up the plastic stuff you have first before buying new non-plastic things. Use your plasticy yoga mat until it crumbles.
posted by Mizu at 9:54 AM on March 6 [5 favorites]
There are many options for bar form dish soap. A widely available classic is the dr bronners bar soap, which I find much too harsh for my skin but definitely acceptable for dishes and pretty good at cutting grease. They come wrapped in paper. You can use a natural loofa to do the scrubbing and then compost it when it gets gross if you want to fully commit to the bit. There are also many smaller companies that will sell you a fancy refillable glass or aluminum bottle and milk carton style refills for different household cleaning liquids, including dish soap. I have tried a fair few and I’m mostly not a fan because of the price and effectiveness and smell intensities, but plenty of people I know love them. The brand I have liked best is Blueland.
For tissues if you are going fully super intense eco green etc etc then the real option is handkerchiefs. Handkerchiefs combined with bleachable cotton rounds for stuff like makeup removal and wound care. But then you get into obscure calculations - does the plastic around your bulk tissues outweigh the water usage in washing handkerchiefs and cotton rounds? It depends on the resources and their cultivation in your area - I’m in the PNW and luckily we have a lot of water, so washable reusable fabric items make sense, but if I were visiting my parents in south Texas some plastic would be preferable to extra laundry, especially hot water.
There is a similar kind of rubric of calculation for produce. That copious amount of plastic around your veggies is annoying but it decreases food spoilage and therefore food waste enormously. Where I am there are companies that specialize in local produce, small farms and co-ops and local tiny specialty producers, and delivering them directly to consumers - I get a twice monthly delivery from Pacific Coast Harvest and love them - but even they sometimes deliver stuff in plastic, and store things in plastic. The only way to circumvent this completely involves stuff like eating exclusively local things that have not had to be transported more than a few miles, growing your own food garden, choosing which vendors at the farmers market to patronize and bringing all your own containers with premeasured tare weights… all very intense stuff. So yeah, it’s right now a matter of balancing your priorities. With something like cabbage, it’s a bit easier because they are so easy to store and you are more likely to find it without plastic and also be able to keep it at home without plastic for longer. But something quick to rot like lettuce means more time in prepping it at home, getting less of it so you can store it without plastic and use it all before it goes bad, and that means more travel to get more if it more often.
My point is, these things are really difficult to navigate in today’s world. There are lots of innovations happening in packaging right now, so keep looking. But also don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Use up the plastic stuff you have first before buying new non-plastic things. Use your plasticy yoga mat until it crumbles.
posted by Mizu at 9:54 AM on March 6 [5 favorites]
Best answer: For tissues, I really like the bamboo tissues from Grove and they come in cardboard/paper packaging and do not have the plastic at the top.
For yoga mats, I have been looking at but have not purchased these: https://okoliving.com/collections/mats
posted by miscbuff at 9:58 AM on March 6
For yoga mats, I have been looking at but have not purchased these: https://okoliving.com/collections/mats
posted by miscbuff at 9:58 AM on March 6
Best answer: Seconding to see if there is a refillery near you. I live in a moderate sized city and we have three of them. I use them for hand soap, dish detergent, unscented facial moisturizer. It's bring your own container so I just use mason jars of various sizes. As for tissues, you can either use rags as suggested--we cut up old towels/clothes for this.
posted by Kitteh at 10:00 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitteh at 10:00 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Grove offers metal containers for dishsoap. I've even bought it from Target.
posted by vunder at 10:00 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
posted by vunder at 10:00 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I don't think I've seen this anywhere else unfortunately, but my local natural foods store actually sells salad greens in bulk by weight in the produce section (rather than a salad bar situation).
posted by dusty potato at 11:04 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
posted by dusty potato at 11:04 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Most of the coops in Minneapolis do this as well. Now if I could remember that when I was buying greens...
posted by advicepig at 11:38 AM on March 6
posted by advicepig at 11:38 AM on March 6
Best answer: Just a note for everyone that unfortunately those "environmentally friendly" laundry sheets contain polyvinyl alcohol, the same stuff that coats detergent pods, which is a plastic that does not biodegrade in wastewater treatment plants and exits them as microplastics. The best choice for laundry detergent is to find a powder that comes in a cardboard box without plastic.
posted by hydropsyche at 12:19 PM on March 6 [15 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 12:19 PM on March 6 [15 favorites]
Best answer: I buy laundry detergent (Tide) at Costco and it comes in cardboard boxes with no bag inside. I'm sure there are other issues with it, but that's not one of them.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:52 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:52 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Another support for handkerchiefs, at least for the general runny nose times if using them when people have a runny nose because they're sick. You can cut down on a lot of tissues that way.
You can also cut down on toilet paper by quite a lot if you get a bidet.
For dish soap, I have used a savon de Marseille olive oil based soap with a dish brush or sponge and it works really well. Zero packaging if you find a local place that sells it. It is excellent at cleaning dishes.
posted by urbanlenny at 12:54 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
You can also cut down on toilet paper by quite a lot if you get a bidet.
For dish soap, I have used a savon de Marseille olive oil based soap with a dish brush or sponge and it works really well. Zero packaging if you find a local place that sells it. It is excellent at cleaning dishes.
posted by urbanlenny at 12:54 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Salad bars are a potential source for unpackaged, prewashed/prepped greens and other vegetables - some will allow your own containers, and some have cardboard (or compostable plastic, if that’s ok). Spinach is light enough that the price per oz is reasonable-ish, but things like carrots would prob be cost prohibitive.
posted by maleficent at 1:31 PM on March 6
posted by maleficent at 1:31 PM on March 6
Best answer: Jelinek Cork Bath and Kitchen mats ("anti-fatigue and shock absorbing surface"); DIY with stoppers, cork tiles.
Seconding co-ops, natural food stores for bulk buys and fill-your-own options; find your state here.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:01 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Seconding co-ops, natural food stores for bulk buys and fill-your-own options; find your state here.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:01 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I like Meliora laundry soap but I haven't tried their dish soap.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 3:23 PM on March 6
posted by jeweled accumulation at 3:23 PM on March 6
Best answer: hydropsyche beat me to it re the PVA in laundry sheets being a plastic, but there's another convenient alternative that hasn't been mentioned yet: detergent tablets.
We've been trying Blueland for laundry detergent (and dishwasher detergent and toilet cleaner); it comes in tablet form. You can use their metal tin for storage; refills come in compostable paper bags. You do have to be more careful with the tablets re moisture exposure, as metal tins aren't as airtight as plastic storage can be. We're generally satisfied so far, with the exception of washing athleticwear and other clothing primarily made of artificial fibers - it isn't getting the stink out of those as effectively as it is with our regular cottons and linens and wool clothing.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 3:44 PM on March 6
We've been trying Blueland for laundry detergent (and dishwasher detergent and toilet cleaner); it comes in tablet form. You can use their metal tin for storage; refills come in compostable paper bags. You do have to be more careful with the tablets re moisture exposure, as metal tins aren't as airtight as plastic storage can be. We're generally satisfied so far, with the exception of washing athleticwear and other clothing primarily made of artificial fibers - it isn't getting the stink out of those as effectively as it is with our regular cottons and linens and wool clothing.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 3:44 PM on March 6
Best answer: I bring reusable fabric bags to the grocery store for produce - loose greens and other veggies.
Subscribe to Who Gives a Crap - bamboo toilet paper that comes wrapped in spiffy paper - no plastic and good looking black and white graphical paper
posted by leslies at 4:40 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Subscribe to Who Gives a Crap - bamboo toilet paper that comes wrapped in spiffy paper - no plastic and good looking black and white graphical paper
posted by leslies at 4:40 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: If you can get past their push for "free gifts", Grove Collaborative sells big aluminum canisters of dish soap. 32 oz! Vunder mentioned them above. I like that it's gentle on my hands and has the same consistency as more name-brand dish soap.
posted by Guess What at 6:16 PM on March 6
posted by Guess What at 6:16 PM on March 6
Best answer: One thing that I've become a big fan of in my life is purchasing things in a way that minimizes landfill use. So while some things I have are decidedly not fully recyclable, they do fall squarely in the first two 'r's of reduce/reuse/recycle.
Here are some examples - 21 years ago when my first was born, they provided 6oz glass bottles for collecting breast milk and once they were used, they threw them away - well not really because I hoarded them and they have used as spice jars for the past 21 years. I refill them from the local co-op. I'm also a big fan of mason jars for food related storage. They reasonably cheap and last a long time. The lids and rings rust over time, but 5 years of reuse is great - plus if you're buying things that come in glass jars from the store, you can pick items that come in a standard mason jar so you can reuse them instead of recycling. As an example, my daughter has been having yogurt with her cereal for the past year. Instead of buying 7 small tubs of 1 huge tub, she buys 1 which I use to make the rest of the week's yogurt which I store as single servings in 8oz mason jars. Final example - I bought a plastic bottle of dish soap in 2012. I'm still using it. It's easy enough to refill.
posted by plinth at 9:03 AM on March 7 [1 favorite]
Here are some examples - 21 years ago when my first was born, they provided 6oz glass bottles for collecting breast milk and once they were used, they threw them away - well not really because I hoarded them and they have used as spice jars for the past 21 years. I refill them from the local co-op. I'm also a big fan of mason jars for food related storage. They reasonably cheap and last a long time. The lids and rings rust over time, but 5 years of reuse is great - plus if you're buying things that come in glass jars from the store, you can pick items that come in a standard mason jar so you can reuse them instead of recycling. As an example, my daughter has been having yogurt with her cereal for the past year. Instead of buying 7 small tubs of 1 huge tub, she buys 1 which I use to make the rest of the week's yogurt which I store as single servings in 8oz mason jars. Final example - I bought a plastic bottle of dish soap in 2012. I'm still using it. It's easy enough to refill.
posted by plinth at 9:03 AM on March 7 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: One item I didn't include on the list that I just ran out of: paper towel rolls. I use washable cloths for almost everything, but I do keep paper towels on hand for some things. Every time I purchase paper towel rolls, they are enclosed in plastic. Are there any brands that distribute paper towel rolls in paper boxes?
posted by Number Used Once at 12:15 PM on March 7
posted by Number Used Once at 12:15 PM on March 7
Best answer: Who Gives a Crap, which I think someone mentioned above for toilet paper, also sells paper towels that come in cardboard boxes wrapped in paper.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:23 PM on March 7 [2 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 12:23 PM on March 7 [2 favorites]
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We get dish soap in bar form, and use brushes to apply it.
But if paper is off your list of packaging, as well as glass, (do you have recycling and yard waste where you are?), that's going to be tough. Most places near me have compostable containers, (but, paper), with compostable lids, so you can certainly do hot/salad bar type things for your veg. And you can certainly buy compostable food storage bags for your fresh veg that you actually deal with. Doubt you will find prewashed veg in anything but plastic.
posted by Windopaene at 9:25 AM on March 6