My Favorite Earth Friendly Products
I am late to the Earth Day 2024 game, as I am late to many holidays. I can sit here and give you excuses, but the reality is I am a huge fan of aligning my actions with my beliefs.
If I believe the Earth is worth celebrating, I should be living that out every day.
That said, you have no judgment from me for celebrating Earth Day 2024 (or National Cake Day or The Sky is Blue Day), my brain operates a bit differently.
Regardless of whether you are celebrating Earth Day 2024, or simply want more ways to align your actions with your beliefs, I am here to help you!
I am on my own journey of learning what products are feasible for my family to use that are more friendly to our bodies and to the earth.
Tried-and-true, the products I recommend below are items I use (or have used) in my own home in my efforts to save the world.
Why Change?
It’s difficult to argue that our lifestyles need to be more conducive to the health of our planet.
But since we’ve evolved into this highly convenient, single-use world, sustainable products are currently more of a novelty (and priced as such), and the opposite is considered “conventional” or “traditional”.
But we can change that.
One of the reasons we choose these “conventional” products that are typically more harmful, is because they are convenient, accessible, and affordable.
That’s hard to argue.
But again, it’s about aligning your actions with your beliefs. If you believe the Earth is worth celebrating on Earth Day 2024, what are you doing to live that out on a daily basis?
Good, Better, Best
When it comes to choosing healthy foods or sustainable household products, we all need to consider many things such as:
affordability
time
beliefs about results
availability
other people in our home
allergies/sensitivities
religious restrictions
This is where the Good, Better, Best mindset comes into play. I teach this mindset to my clients working through the Kitchen Detox Workshop.
You do not owe anyone an explanation for your choice. You get to make those choices, having considered each of these factors, and choose the most feasible for you or your family (yeah!).
It’s unfortunate that “conventional” equates to more harmful in most cases.
But we are all just trying to do our best.
And in my efforts to save the world for Earth Day 2024, I’ve tried a few products that I want to share with you that work well for me and my family.
**I have no affiliation with these products and companies. I just dig them (:
My Favorite Products for Earth Day 2024
FOOD STORAGE
Two of my favorite disposable food storage replacements have easily been Bee’s Wrap, and BioBag Resealable Bags.
Bee’s Wrap
This has been one of my favorite kitchen substitutes for plastic wrap. Not only is plastic film not recyclable in most city recycling programs, it releases harmful toxins into your food when heated.
This bee’s wax wrap is compostable, forms to the food or container, easy to clean, and you can buy it in pre-cut sheets, or a roll similar to plastic wrap.
BioBag
I’ve tried a lot of these compostable bag products, and BioBag takes the cake! The other brands I’ve tried have fallen apart so easily, but BioBag holds up.
We tried opting out of plastic baggies altogether, but that was not working well for our family. While I use them much less frequently now, opting for sealable glass dishes and jars, these bags are nice to have around.
**I still have not found a good compostable kitchen garbage bag I like (even BioBag doesn’t hold up well for larger kitchen containers). Please share in the comments if you have found one you like!
POWDERED DISH SOAP
For a long while, I was mostly concerned about what was in the dish soap that affected my body, and to some extent, the earth.
But as I’ve dug deeper into my beliefs over the past years, I recognized that, while your body’s health is important to consider, there are these nuanced ways in which these “healthy” products are still causing a lot of harm.
In my case, it was recognizing the amount of plastic being used to package my now “healthy” dish soap choices.
So, for a hot minute I tried two different types of solid dish soaps from Package Free that I did NOT like. They were messy, smelled horrible, and were expensive.
I gave solid dish soaps a solid try, and they were a solid no-go for my family.
But Blueland changed all that with their powdered dish soap. It smells like nothing, cuts grease, suds up nicely, is not messy (when I opt to use the silicone dispenser bottle they also provide)… it’s a win in my book!
TABLET REFILLS FOR VARIOUS SPRAY CLEANERS
I’ve seen many of these begin to pop up, and the ones I’ve tried have been great.
It’s worth noting here that just like with food, just because something claims to be “healthy” does not mean it is. These are not all created equal (remember when we thought Subway was healthy?).
The brands I’m recommending here are good quality and well sourced. I believe that, in conjunction with sustainability, is what makes them the superior choice. Not the mere fact that they prevent plastic usage.
Here are the ones I’ve tried and love:
Meliora All-Purpose Cleaner (I only recently learned about this company and now want to try ALL of their products)
HAND SOAP, BODY WASH, and SHAMPOO
The truth is, I have a hard time with this one.
Certainly the plastics from liquid soap refills are not planet-friendly, even if the soap is.
And I don’t know what it’s like in your home, but I find that thanks to our heavily manufactured world, even supposedly earth-friendly soap dispensers are cheaply made and I end up tossing those out often, anyways.
So, my recommendation here is old-school - bar soap.
I’ve even found some that are packaged in earth-friendly boxes or paper and do not use plastic film to wrap them.
If you’re local to the PNW, PCC (a local co-op) carries many options, including its own brand.
But my favorite that I’ve been using recently is called Ethique. They make body soaps, face, hand, and shampoo.
PAPER PRODUCTS
I know families who go through paper towels by the Costco pack every two weeks.
We used things like paper towels, toilet paper, and cotton swabs, because they are convenient, disposable, and keep us from having to touch gross things.
Not only are many of these conventional products made with unsustainable products, but they are treated with harmful chemicals like chlorine bleach, in manufacturing.
And have you noticed they are nearly always wrapped in plastic film?
Interestingly… did you know that products like Kleenex tissues don’t break down like toilet paper? They are often filled with things like lotions and products that prevent them from doing so.
The increasing production of more bamboo (highly sustainable) and cotton (biodegradable) products to replace these has grown over the past few years, and I’ve tried a few…
Here are some of my favorites:
Caboo Bamboo Paper Towels - They make other products like toilet paper, but I prefer a different brand that I’ll recommend below.
Who Gives a Crap Toilet Paper - Wrapped in planet-friendly packaging. They also sell paper towels and facial tissues (and give back to the environment and communities)
UNPaper Towels - The brand I purchased long ago, and have been using ever since, no longer seems to be available. This link is to a brand I have not tried, but don’t be afraid to search around for a good quality product.
Cotton Handkerchiefs - My partner and I bought these in order to make masks at the beginning of the pandemic, and ended up loving using them instead of disposable tissues. I’ve not purchased a single box of Kleenex in years.
Bamboo Q-Tips - For a hot minute, we tried nixing the disposables altogether, and opting for reusable Q-tips until the end of one fell off in my ear and instigated an Urgent Care trip to get it out. Think Good, Better, Best, my friends.
LAUNDRY SOAP, FABRIC SOFTENER, AND DRYER SHEETS
As we discussed earlier in the dish soap, it’s difficult to package liquid products in planet-friendly containers.
So, to celebrate Earth Day in more meaningful ways, here are some sustainable laundry products I’ve tried.
Nellie’s Lamby Dryerballs - Wool felted dryerballs have replaced fabric softener AND dryer sheets in our home. Plus, they dry your clothes more efficiently by agitating them. I like this brand, but even better would be talking to your local sheep farmers about getting some from them!
TruEarth Laundry Soap Sheets - After trying three different brands, I liked this one the best, and it comes in planet-friendly packaging (whereas brands like Earth Breeze still come in a plastic container for larger amounts). **These work far better in a top-loading washer than they do in a front loader, where they tend to not dissolve completely.
Meliora Oxygen Brightener Powder - comes in paper packaging, as opposed to other brands I’ve seen in most stores (looking at you, OxiClean). A great replacement for chlorine bleach, although it is not a disinfectant. (Try hydrogen peroxide for that)
Nellie’s Wow Stick Stain Remover - As simple as it gets, this is a solid stick similar to chapstick (but without the plastic packaging). And the best part? It works! Have been using this for several months now, and love it.
Ready to save the world?
Or at the very least, are you ready to align your actions with your beliefs by making small changes to your lifestyle in celebration of Earth Day 2024?
Yeah you are…
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