Working towards a zero-waste home can be a challenge. There are so many potential sustainable swaps for items in every room that it’s difficult to know where to start. However, by making a few small changes today, you can begin to consolidate your zero-waste habits over time, slowly reducing waste and discovering new ways to rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover materials.
Getting started is as simple as grabbing one of our Zero-Waste Kits, and where better to begin your zero-waste journey than in the bathroom? Read on to learn more.
The Zero Waste Bathroom Kit
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There are plenty of easy wins when it comes to your bathroom, and the first things you should look for include everyday items that are all too often made of non-recyclable plastics. Our Zero Waste Bathroom Kit includes the following non-plastic alternatives:
- Floss
- Bamboo Toothbrush
- Toothpaste
- Shampoo
- Deodorant
- Stainless Steel Container
Here, we look a little deeper into how our Zero Waste Bathroom Kit can help you reduce plastic waste and much more.
No Tox Life Vegan Floss
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It might look like harmless cotton, but dental floss is made of plastic—petroleum-based nylon to be exact. Not only is this material non-biodegradable, but it has the potential to clog up recycling machines and harm marine life if ingested. It’s also typically sold in multi-material plastic dispensers, which are then shipped in yet more plastic.
No Tox Life Vegan Floss, however, allows you to floss until your heart’s content without the plastic waste. This mint flavored, bamboo-charcoal floss is great for cleaning your teeth and comes packaged within a reusable glass container. Additionally, it’s coated in plant wax rather than petroleum-based waxes that help you reduce your carbon footprint even further.
Brush with Bamboo Bamboo Toothbrush
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A billion plastic toothbrushes are trashed each year in the US—and guess what, they’re almost impossible to recycle. Today, some limited recycling programs do exist, however, in general, the small parts and multi-material construction means they damage existing machines and are discarded in landfill.
Problem solved with the Brush with Bamboo toothbrush though, as they are 100% plastic-free. The handle can even be chopped up and thrown in your compost. Additionally, they’re packaged entirely in recycled card and paper, with no glue or tape used, to ensure recycling (or composting) is simple.
Nelson Naturals Zero Waste Toothpaste
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Toothpaste tubes are a true example of linear thinking. Designed to be discarded once they are empty, this type of multi-material packaging cannot be processed by existing recycling machines, with inefficient designs that leave toothpaste within the tubes also hindering the recycling process. It’s difficult to get a concrete idea of how many toothpaste tubes are discarded each year, but some estimates put the number at around 400 million.
One brand hoping to change the toothpaste status-quo is Nelson Naturals. Switch your conventional tubes for these glass jars (which are both reusable and recyclable) and you can keep your teeth clean as you reduce your plastic consumption. What’s more, with Nelson Naturals’ toothpaste, you can reuse the glass jar when your toothpaste is gone.
Bottle None Be You Shampoo Bar
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In 2018, Johnson & Johnson estimated that 552 million 15 oz. shampoo bottles could end up in landfill without proper recycling. And when you consider that only 8.4 % of all plastics products are successfully recycled, it’s clear that our landfills are already overflowing with plastic trash.
There is an alternative of course, and while companies want you to recycle more, Bottle None has gone one step further and eliminated plastic from its products entirely. The be YOU Shampoo Bar is suitable for all hair types and simple to use—just lather up your hands as you would do with soap.
No Tox Life Unpackaged Deodorant Round Puck
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Recently, in an effort to increase recycling levels, the EPA designated aerosol cans as universal waste, downgrading their status from hazardous waste. However, despite this ruling, there is still a huge burden on the recycling industry, with some 3.75 billion aerosol cans filled in 2016 alone. Deodorant cans constitute a significant part of this number, and recycling programs either struggle to meet demand or don’t yet exist.
No Tox Life’s Deodorant Pucks sidestep this waste problem entirely, delivering aluminum-free and paraben-free vegan deodorants that are applied with a couple of swipes to your armpits.
UKonserve Stainless Steel Container
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, bathroom storage items such as soap shelves are invariably made of plastic—it is, after all, waterproof and light enough to be affixed to tiled surfaces. However, while they are generally not considered single-use, they are usually non-recyclable—meaning the only place for them when they break is the landfill.
UKonserve’s Stainless Steel Container, on the other hand, is stainless steel, and the lid is a clear platinum grade silicone material allowing you to see what’s inside. It’s perfect to store your shampoo bar or deodorant bar in, or it can be used for anything!
Check out our Zero Waste Starter Kit and Zero Waste Kitchen Kit. Don’t forget to subscribe to zerowaste.com for the latest information and news on the zero waste movement and how you and your business can continue to strive for the zero waste principles.