Green Newton

Use Plastic Free July as a time to rethink the everyday plastic products we use in our lives. Here are some easy suggestions for the bathroom:

• Try a toothbrush made of bamboo and dental floss that can be refilled in reusable containers. Toothpaste tablets come in a number of flavors to suite your taste, with fluoride or without. These can easily be purchased online.
• Take out the plastic bottles that hold shampoos, conditioners, and soaps by replacing them with solid bar versions.  They are increasingly available in stores and work well.
• Cloth sanitary napkins snap onto underwear, and specialized period underwear  come with absorbent liners conveniently built in. Wash in your washing machine, rinse, and repeat. Also available are reusable menstrual cups that you insert like a tampon and rinse out.

Because we use personal products regularly over the course of a life time, going reusable has a great impact on the amount of waste you generate. Give them a try.

If you absolutely love liquid soaps…

Try the concentrates by Ethique that arrive as a solid bar in paper packaging, and become liquid when you mix with boiling water. You just refill your pump dispenser with the mix and you’re good to go. The concentrated bars are available for shampoo, conditioner, lotion, hand soaps, as well as spray cleaners and dish soaps.

Also check out Plastic Free July for more tips on eliminating plastic from your life and sign up to join the Plastic Free Challenge.