Have you ever thought about the amount of waste your bathroom routine generates? Anything from disposable razors, facial wipes, makeup containers to the numerous bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash cluttering your shower. A simple solution: audit your bathroom waste to see where you can reduce it.
The Circular Consumer teamed up with Kate at Plenty + Spare, a small batch soapery located in Vancouver, BC, to discuss simple ways to reduce your bathroom waste. Kate inspired me to reduce my bathroom waste years ago when I attended one of her soap-making classes. To this day, I continue to experiment with her recipe and have been a big supporter of her hand-crafted products ever since.
Refill Your Product Bottles
These days refill shops are popping up all over the place, stocking many refillable bathroom products like lotions, soaps, cleansers, toothpaste and scrubs, to name a few. Refillable products are supplied in deposit return containers or filled directly into your product container. Better yet, refill shops often carry locally made quality products free of toxins, a great way to reduce waste and your carbon footprint.
Proper storage of your products will ensure they are kept usable for as long as possible. Ask for tips on how to properly store the product when stocking up at your local refillery. For example, oils will degrade and spoil more quickly when exposed to sunlight, so they must be stored in coloured glass bottles in a cabinet. Over time bath bombs lose potency when left exposed to moisture in the air. Extend their life and effectiveness by storing them in an airtight container.
Refill shops often carrying locally made and quality products free of toxins and packaging. Supporting local, sustainable businesses and products is a great way to reduce carbon emissions by shortening the distance goods travel. So check out your neighbourhood refillery to see what products they carry!
Hair Care, Sans Bottle
Shampoo and conditioner come in various bottle sizes and shapes and must be produced every time you toss one out. Over time, that accumulates to a lot of waste!
Instead, try package-free shampoo and conditioner bars or refill your bottles at your local refillery. With so many options, I am confident there is one for every hair type. I personally love these Plenty + Spare shampoo and conditioner bars. They lather well and don’t leave a waxy residue no matter the water type. Not only good for the environment but shampoo and conditioner bars also take up minimal space in the shower and travel well. Goodbye to filling miniature travel bottles with shampoo and conditioner!
Sustainable storage tip: extend the life of your shampoo and conditioner bars by letting them drain and dry completely between uses.
Sustainable Suds
A simple and easy swap is bar soap instead of liquid soap and body wash sold in plastic bottles. There are many great natural bar soaps available, package-free or minimally wrapped paper. If bar soap isn’t your jam, check your local refillery to refill your bottle or buy concentrated liquid soap that uses less packaging and less transportation energy.
Another option is to learn to make soap by attending a soap-making class. There are endless options to customize the scent, colour, and exfoliation with oils, clays, and dried flowers—a great option for anyone wanting to explore their creative side in soap making.
Storage tip: Like the shampoo and conditioner bars, let your soap drain and dry completely between uses. Because really, nobody likes a soggy soap bar.
Pucker Up!
Lip balm is luxurious. The plastic packaging, not so much!
If you’re like me, you keep lip balm stashed in various locations – coat pockets, bags, and in the car. While the plastic applicator is small, it has big impacts as it degrades and pollutes the environment.
An easy swap is to buy your lip balm in a compostable paper tube or reusable tin. Toss in the compost or reuse the tin for your next DIY recipe to dispose of the packaging.
Zero Waste Shaving With a Safety Razor
While some trends are questionable to bring back, the safety razor isn’t one of them.
A swap often overlooked is the disposable plastic razor. Like most, I use to buy the plastic razor with the refill plastic cartridges. Not only wasteful but expensive too! And, I always ended up with extra handles.
Making the switch to a safety razor may be intimidating, but they are easy to use, and as the name suggests, they’re safe. Safety razors are made of metal and use recyclable blades that are less expensive than plastic refill blades, making the upfront investment worth it both in terms of the environment and cost savings. But remember, before you make the switch, use up all your disposable razors first!
Use Up What You Have (best way to reduce bathroom waste)
The most sustainable product is the one you already own. We’ve all made impulse bathroom purchases, bought promotional items or new products because we liked the smell. Next thing you know, you have a collection of bottles cluttering your shower and no storage under the bathroom sink. So use them up before buying new products!
Note that this article was prepared in partnership with Plenty + Spare.