15 Easy Plastic-Free Bathroom Swaps
Think about all the different products you might use in your bathroom. From brushing your teeth to showering and cleaning your bathroom, there are many opportunities to get rid of disposable plastics! Here are some of the easiest swaps broken up into three categories: personal care, showering, and cleaning
Personal Care
Bamboo Toothbrush
Your toothbrush is an easy place to start when replacing disposable plastics in the bathroom. As I talked about in Plastic-Free Dental Care, there are a lot of bamboo toothbrushes on the market. But most of them still have Nylon (i.e. plastic) bristles. So, you have to pull those bristles out with pliers before composting the handle.
The first time I did this it was kind of a pain in the ass, so instead I opt for bamboo toothbrushes with boar hair bristles. When I’m finished with it, I can toss the whole brush into the compost.
Silk Floss
After you’ve brushed your teeth, you’re onto floss. The typical floss is made of plastic, then packaged in a plastic container and then put in a plastic package. Triple-whammy of plastic! I switched to silk floss comes in a glass container and packaged in a paper box.
Cotton Swabs
At the very least, start buy switching from plastic cotton swabs to paper ones. If you already do that, great! But I’m guessing it’s still packaged in some sort of plastic. I like these bamboo cotton swabs because it comes in a plastic-free package.
Makeup Rounds
With makeup rounds, switch from disposable cotton ones that come in a plastic bag, to reusables ones. You can keep a delicates laundry bag near your bathroom sink to collect the rounds before laundry day. For any moms, I repurposed breastfeeding pads for this purpose.
Deodorant
In Plastic-Free Deodorant, I go into many different options available for getting deodorants without disposable plastic.
Menstrual Cup
Instead of throwing away a box of plastic tampons each month, use a reusable silicone menstrual cup. It takes a little adjustment at first but one of the many benefits is that it doesn’t need to be changed for 12 hours!
Reusable Pads
Or if pads are more your style, go with reusable pads instead of plastic-wrapped plastic pads.
Paper Wrapped Toilet Paper
I go into the all the various plastic-free toilet paper options including bidets in Plastic-Free Toilet Paper & Alternatives. While some of the options are a might be out of stock due to COVID-19, they’re slowly getting stock back.
Showering
Shampoo Bar & Conditioner Bar
I discovered shampoo and conditioner bars at LUSH a few years ago and haven’t gone back to liquid shampoo and conditioner since! I go more into how to use them in Plastic-Free Showering.
Soap Bar
Switching to a bar of soap to wash your hands (or body) is one of the simplest switches you can make. I can get bars of soap package-free at my local Whole Foods.
Safety Razor
Safety razors are metal razors with replaceable metal blades. There are many options on Amazon or at your local waste-free shop.
Cleaning
Toilet Brush
The next time you have to replace your toilet bowl brush, consider a compostable one.
Mirror Cleaner & Surface Cleaner
For cleaning the rest of your bathroom, consider making your own cleaners with vinegar or Castile soap. I go more into how I clean my whole house with only baking soda, vinegar, and Castile soap in Plastic-Free Cleaning.
What do you think? Can you make some of these swaps in your bathroom? Or have you already done all of them?
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