Plastic-Free Household Cleaning Products
If you want to move towards a plastic-free home, you can certainly make your own cleaning supplies to avoid the plastic waste from the bottles most cleaners come in. Another option is to choose plastic-free cleaning products. Fortunately, as more consumers recognize the plastic pollution crisis, more brands are responding with zero-waste and plastic-free alternatives.
Plastic-free cleaning supplies often come in reusable or biodegradable packaging that breaks down naturally and does not contribute to the accumulation of plastic waste in landfills and oceans. Plus, sustainable cleaning supplies tend to lack the harsh chemicals and toxins that conventional ones do, which can be harmful to your health and the air quality in your home. By opting for natural and plastic-free alternatives, you can help eliminate exposure to these harmful substances, creating a safer and more sustainable environment for your family, pets, and community in general.
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Responsibly Packaged Cleaning Products
Enjoy these examples of innovative brands offering responsibly packaged cleaning supplies.
Blueland
This company uses recyclable or compostable packaging and holds numerous environmental certifications such as B Corporation, Climate Neutral Certified, and EPA Safer Choice. With the tagline “Refills Not Landfills,” Blueland’s multi-surface cleaner comes with a Forever Bottle that customers fill with water, drop in a cleaning tablet, and then start cleaning. Blueland also offers powder dish soap, laundry tablets, and dishwasher tablets.
Branch Basics
Branch Basics cleaning starter kits include refillable glass bottles plus concentrated cleaners — just add water — for a variety of cleaning needs like laundry, dishes, bathroom, and glass surfaces. Products are available online only with the option to sign up for a subscription. The website states, “Our everyday cleaning essentials are packed with power, fueled by nature and delivered right to your door.”
Cleancult
“Clean should mean clean in every single way,” proclaims the Cleancult website. “That we should refill not landfill, that paper is mightier than plastic, and that lots of small actions add up to great change.” Cleancult sells reusable glass bottles for dispensing its cleaning products, which come in paper cartons that are recyclable — if your local recycling service accepts cartons. Products include all-purpose cleaner, liquid dish soap, dishwasher tablets, liquid laundry detergent, and dryer balls.
Eco Roots
This zero-waste company offers laundry detergent sheets, wool dryer balls, and solid dish soap, packaged in cardboard boxes. Eco Roots aims to “eliminate as much plastic as possible from our products and operations, and our shipment packaging is plastic-free and recyclable,” according to the website.
Ethique
Based in New Zealand but with a new plastic-free warehouse in the United States, this company strives to eliminate plastic waste. Its products include a stain remover bar, bathroom and multi-purpose kitchen spray concentrates, and dishwashing liquid concentrate. Ethique prides itself on its plastic-free packaging. “Our packaging, shipping boxes and padding are free from laminates and plastic (including our packing tape), which means they can go straight into the home compost and will disappear in a matter of months.”
Etee
According to the company website, Etee’s vision is “Plastic free living for everyone. Making ‘truly’ sustainable products that are accessible to all people of all backgrounds, on all continents.” Products include toilet bowl cleaner; all-purpose, floor, and window cleaners and dish soap concentrates packaged in backyard-compostable Beepods; dishwashing kits; laundry stain bars; and concentrated laundry detergent packaged in a paper bag with a 100% biodegradable lining.
Fillaree
This brand makes it refilling easy; just subscribe for home delivery of bulk refills. You can also refill in person if you’re near one of the growing number of refill stations in the United States. There are over 120 as of June, Fillaree founder and CEO Alyssa Cherry told Earth911. The company packages its products in locally made reusable bags and sustainably made cardboard boxes. Home cleaning products include dish soap, all-purpose cleaner, and plastic-free refillable bottles, of course.
Meliora Cleaning Products
This Chicago-based brand makes a point of ingredient transparency, listing “every ingredient in every product we make right on the label.” Product packaging is free of single-use plastic — or completely plastic-free — and most is reusable. Meliora’s concentrated powders, solid soap bars, and tablets make it easy to clean your home with zero-waste and low-waste refills. Products include laundry powder, oxygen brightener bleach alternative, soap stick stain remover, all-purpose home cleaner spray, gentle home cleaning scrub, and a dish soap bar.
Package Free
A zero-waste lifestyle shop in New York City and online globally, Package Free offers home cleaning supplies plus much more. “Products are natural, minimalist, easy on the planet, made to last when you need them (and they biodegrade when you don’t),” says the website. All packaging is 100% backyard compostable, 100% recyclable, no frills, plastic-free, and sometimes not there at all. Package Free also ships 100% plastic-free. There is a long list of household cleaning products for laundry, kitchen, dishes, and more.
Supernatural
With the tagline, “Clean Like Mother Nature is Watching,” Supernatural sells cleaners for stainless steel, wood and floors, bath and tile, glass, and granite. Its product line includes attractive reusable glass bottles you can fill with concentrated, just-add-water formulas to avoid plastic waste. In addition, its cardboard packaging is made from recycled and recyclable materials.
Tru Earth
Manufacturing products in Canada, Tru Earth is known for its Eco-Strips plastic-jug-free laundry detergent. The pre-measured, ultra-concentrated laundry detergent strips dissolve quickly in both hot and cold water. They come packaged in a plastic-free recyclable cardboard sleeve. Tru Earth also makes toilet bowl cleaner strips, multi-purpose cleaner, fabric softener, wool dryer balls, and dishwasher detergent tablets.
Veles
This brand touts itself as featuring the first closed-loop cleaner. Sustainable aluminum bottles house an all-purpose cleaner that is made from 97% food waste. (The other 3% includes essential oils for fragrance plus decyl glucoside, a plant-derived and biodegradable fragrance stabilizer.) “When treating waste as a resource, you can both reduce overconsumption of resources and greenhouse gas emissions from landfills,” explains the website. This single-product brand offers a starter kit and refills to minimize waste. We look forward to seeing where Veles goes from here.
Choosing Plastic-Free for the Earth
When it’s time to clean your home, show your support for companies taking action to protect the planet. By choosing plastic-free cleaning supplies, you are making a sustainable choice that benefits both the environment and your own well-being. Your support of these responsible companies helps promote the transition towards a circular economy in which conservation and waste minimization are priorities.
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