MWG 2 - Minimal Waste @Home - Bathroom edition
Personal hygiene helps us stay attractive, healthy and alive. Therefore we are willing to spend our time and money in good products. This is a good thing, we make sure we look after ourselves. Now let's take this to a next level. A sustainable level. Sustaining common health for us and the future us.
Bathroom products are often packaged in plastic. It’s cheap, light and sterile which makes it the number one used package material. This has been fun and practical for a while! Now it’s time for a change. Let’s switch up our product habits. This article will provide you a starter pack to help you with the first steps of transition.
Time to bury the plastic brush
As convenient as they are in the beginning, as wasteful they become in the end. Plastic is not biodegradable unfortunately, so our toothbrushes demand for a change of material. Hereby we present to you the bamboo toothbrush!
Easy, light and super compostable. So after you’re done, you can put it without guilt in the compost. But let’s not give up on this one just yet. This tiny brush comes in handy for camming your eyebrows, or, when you don’t prefer to have a toothbrush in your eyebrow, use it as a cleaning product! The shower, sink and small corners of our houses can be easily cleaned and maintained, thanks to this bamboo friend.
Shops that offer bamboo toothbrushes: Holland & Barret and Ekoplaza
Bye tubes!
A fresh mouth is key to good communication. So we had to find a proper replacement for the plastic toothpaste tubes. Although these packages can be recycled, providing that you clean out the whole package by cutting it open and scraping the scratches, sadly still the plastic gets poorly recycled. Thus, to save you some time and energy and the world unnecessary pollution here the alternative options including a DIY recipe!
Here a link to a review of the tooth paste below, unfortunately only in Dutch.
The good old soap bar
When I was younger, I used to wash myself with a soap bar. However, when I grew older these bars disappeared out of my live and got replaced by liquid shower gels. The funny thing is that these shower gels contain mostly out of water, 80% to be precise. This mean shower gel packages transport water over the whole world whilst when these products get used, water is all there is.
This is weird right? So let’s change this hygienical pattern. By buying soap bars you avoid plastic packaging and on top of that also money! You stop paying for water that already comes out of the shower and you pay only for the soap itself. These websites and shops provide fresh, exotic options.
Shops who offer soap bar: Zeepfabriek, Lush, WAAR, Little Plant Pantry & DIY Soap Shop
Note: Shops like Lush provide their soap bars without packaging in the shop. This is great, however, when you buy it, they cover it in paper. Although paper is far from being as polluting as plastic, it is still a material that needs to be manufactured, shipped and composted. Compared to the short life it will have as a soap wrap, it would be great to avoid this from happening. So our suggestion here is to bring your own container or bag and ask the salesmen to use your container instead.
A shampoo bar?
Yes also shampoo can be put in the texture of a soap bar. Besides the avoidance of packages, with it also other benefits arise. Shampoo is easier to transport while traveling, since it is lightweight, small in size and you save money on buying mini bottles. Check out these websites to find a shampoo that suits your kind of flavour.
Shops who offer soap bar: Lush, WAAR, Little Planty Pantry & Botma & Bennekom
Note: A couple of years ago, the Dutch woman Mirjam de Bruijn was stunned by the fact that shampoo consists 80% of water. As an an attempt to change this, she designed her own shampoo brand cald Twenty. The name Twenty refers to the other 20% that is the actual shampoo.
No chemicals please
Deodorants are known for containing chemicals such as aluminium and propylene glycol. Aluminium has been linked to cancer and propylene glycol could damage your nervous system. Smearing this under your armpit does not sound like necessary, so to say. Luckily here are some eco friendly deodorants that provide a clean, non-harmful product for you and the world we’re living in.
Are you in the mood for DIY? Here a recipe to make your own deodorant containing coconut oil, baking soda and essential oil. I’ve been using it myself for a year now and must confirm it actually works. The perfume ingredients of my former deo always intermingled with my sweat, causing the classic non-hygienical smell we are trying to avoid. So to stop this downwards spiral of perfurming your armpit, covering it with deo and ending up smelling worse than before, here the alternatives.
Shops who offer soap bar: Lush, WAAR, Little Planty Pantry & Holland & Barret
Single use razors…?
We shave and shave and make no progress. Hair will come back and call for attention. Of course you can let it grow free and exist as it naturally is, we totally support that. If you prefer it all gone, we suggest investment. And it’s not even a big one!
Coming so far in this blogpost, explaining the damaging effects of single use razors seems out of order. Instead we would like to talk about the smooth safety razor. The number 1 used razor during WW2. This means this product has been around for a while and is still an obtainable product. Vintage even too!
And before you think: ieuw gross, how can you use a second hand razor? Let me clarify that it only concerns the holder. Unfortunately safety razors still produce a bit of waste, namely the metal razor blades. These blades have to be replaced once in a while. Fortunately metal is a recyclable product and the blades are cheap!
And to replace the shaving foam products, we suggest the good old soap bars or just water.
Sugaring!
Aiming for a complete zero waste shaving experience? Transfer to sugar waxing! By mixing up lemon juice, sugar and water you create an natural wax without chemicals that is gentle on the skin. No waxing strips are needed, you can just rip of the sugar paste by itself. Here a link to an article which explains the method.
So far so good! Enjoy your new beauty products and let us know about your experience on our Instagram @UvAGreenOffice