Created by Bridget Clegg using images from Dropps, Blueland, Stasher, Chef'n, Sqwishful
It's no exaggeration to say that our single-use plastic consumption has gotten out of control. According to the EPA, in 2018, 27 million tons of plastic were landfilled, while only 3 million tons were recycled. And this does not account for the staggering amounts of unprocessed litter on land and in our waterways and oceans.
It's difficult to grapple with one's own impact on the environment. Although small changes can seem futile in the face of the millions of tons of single-use plastic thrown away each year, change has to start on an individual level. Thinking about the disposable products that we use in our everyday lives can help us make better choices as consumers.
The 30 eco-friendly products in this guide can help you replace throwaway items that would otherwise remain buried on our planet for hundreds of years ... if not longer. Our team has also been able to test and live with a significant number of these products to evaluate their ease of use for months (or even years), and we've denoted our favorite eco-friendly standouts below.
Buying smarter is by no means the only way to make a difference, but it's a good first step to take. Plus, who knows? Becoming more aware of your single-use waste today could help you plan everything from your meals to your travel more intentionally in the future. These are the best eco-friendly products if you're ready to start making the switch.
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Since most cleaning products are comprised mostly of water, it seems silly to pay extra for something that comes out of your faucet. That's just one of the many reasons we love Blueland.
The eco-friendly brand streamlines green cleaning by using reusable bottles and dissolvable tablets — just fill up the bottles with water, pop one tablet in to dissolve, and you're ready to clean your surfaces, bathroom, and glass. After initially testing this product upon its launch in 2019, we've become longterm fans of Blueland's waste-free products, easy-on-the-nose scents, and effective, thorough cleans.
For those starting fresh, their Clean Essentials Kit comes with four “Forever Bottles,” along with their corresponding light-as-air, water-soluble cleaning tablets. Each tablet contains a blend of naturally derived and synthetic ingredients that are certified safe by environmental agency Cradle to Cradle, and they were also tested by the agency's third-party assessors.
The Spaghetti Scrub cookware scrubbers work astonishingly well, and are much less wasteful than having to throw away a cheap plastic scrubbing wand every few weeks. It's comprised of cotton strips and pulverized, dried corn cobs, giving its noodle-like strands a coarse — but not too rough — texture.
In our team's testing, we found that these can even be thrown into the washing machine in order to keep using them for months on end. In fact, the product advertises that it can be used for 4 to 6 months.
Bar soap is nothing new, but this might be the first dishwashing bar soap we've ever come across.
Wet the No Tox Life Vegan Dish Block onto your sponge, and then work it up into a lather to scrub down your dishes, silverware, glasses, and pots as you would normally. It provides the same fresh clean without the plastic packaging or mystery ingredients.
Instead of awkwardly covering opened, half-used cans of ingredients, bowls of leftovers, and cut fruit with plastic wrap, these stretchy silicone lids will help make everything look a lot more appetizing.
Ranging from 2.6 to 8.3 inches in diameter, these food-safe lids are a simple but genius solution for making sure no food or plastic in your home gets needlessly tossed out. The silicone is also appropriate to use for items you're storing in the freezer, as well as for foods that have just come out of a 450-degree oven.
Even if cotton swabs are small, throwing out handfuls of them each year in order to clean the outside of your ears or touch up your eyeliner is pretty wasteful. LastSwab's silicone-tipped swab will help prevent you from having to buy a 1,000-pack of Q-Tips that are all destined for the garbage.
In testing out the LastSwab, editor Bridget Clegg noted that there is an "adjustment period when you make the switch from the cotton you know and love," since the silicone doesn't absorb moisture. However, after swiping the swab where you need it, she says it's so easy to wash it off with water and keep it in its handy carrying case until the next time you need it.
Buying a new mattress is a big deal, and if you're concerned about how wasteful this investment could potentially be, think about spending your money smartly on a brand like Avocado Green Mattress. They pledge to reduce emissions, and even recycle your old mattress as responsibly as possible for you.
Avocado's flagship hybrid mattress has a lot more going for it than just its green credentials, but it includes GOTS-certified cotton and wool, GOLS-certified latex, and Climate Neutral certification. Avocado has omitted the memory foam, petroleum-based adhesives, and any potentially toxic materials that could wind up sitting in landfills.
Our team's tester specifically recommends this mattress for people who prefer a medium-firm bed. (Opt for the pillowtop if you want it a little softer.) Its innerspring/latex-foam layering provides sufficient pushback to give sleepers of all types a more supportive night's rest.
Not all food waste can go into a compost bin, but starting to divert your plant-based kitchen scraps here — instead of the trash can — is a great eco-friendly change to make at home.
Composting can help provide nutrients to the soil as the scraps organically break down, as opposed to giving off methane gas that’s produced when wasted food goes into a landfill.
Your plastic food-storage bag use stops here. Available in a variety of sizes, these silicone Stasher bags are great for packing up sandwiches and snacks on the go.
We are longtime fans of this eco-friendly product, and in our testing, we were impressed by its durability ... even after countless washes. Stasher bags are great for holding munchies and cold foods, but they can handle hot temperatures just as well.
Misfits Market is a subscription service that works with certified-organic farms to resell excess produce that isn't fit for supermarket shelves.
This could mean anything from veggies that fail to meet USDA cosmetic and sizing requirements to certain types of produce that just don't sell as much as others. The brand estimates that you can save roughly 40% on your groceries by opting for their marked-down, seasonal selection.
We've tested out this service (subsequently buying several of our own boxes), and were pleasantly surprised by the high quality and variety of the produce within it. While we were sent random, in-season produce, there is now plenty of box customization available on the Misfits Market site, making it a more sustainable competitor to mainstream grocery delivery services.
We can't imagine going back to flimsy plastic wrap after we've toted our sandwiches and on-the-go snacks in this chic, collapsible food storage container by Stojo.
Like glass, the silicone is microwave- and dishwasher-safe, and like plastic Tupperware, it's lightweight. However, the Stojo's flexible, leakproof, and stain-resistant design really makes it the superior choice for wherever your travels take you during lunch hour.
Getting a little concerned about the number of paper towels you use in a week? There's an eco-friendlier option: These reusable dish cloths from Grove Collaborative come in a pair of super cute, complementary designs.
Designate one for surfaces and the other for floors to keep things sanitary. The brand even says that these can be microwaved or thrown on the top shelf of a dishwasher to thoroughly clean them.
They also don't stain as much as you'd think — a thorough rinsing after each use is the key to keeping them fresh.
Scary, but true: Microfiber cloths are non-recyclable microplastics, and throwing them in the washing machine to clean them may be harmful to our water supply.
Luckily, in place of microfiber towels or the disposable cloths that you may use for cleaning surfaces and floors in your home, you can use these cheap and effective bamboo-fiber cloths. Not only are these eco-friendly products made from the fast-growing, self-generating bamboo plant, but the cloths are also long-lasting and able to safely wash after each use.
It's no secret that we're obsessed with Dropps detergent — according to editor Christine Anderson, her “stinkiest camping gear came out smelling fresh and feeling clean” upon every single wash with them. How can you not be excited for an eco-friendly product that makes laundry way less of a backbreaking chore?
These dissolvable, dye-free pods can be popped right into your laundry load, and they're packed with the same stain- and odor-fighting potency as regular detergents.
Though toothpaste tubes are technically recyclable, we'd assume that most people might just chuck them in the trash without a second thought. That's why Bite's Toothpaste Bits feel like such a revelation.
These minty little tablets are meant to be chewed up first, and then moistened with water from your toothbrush. When we tested them out ourselves, we found that they don't foam, but the clean feeling tends to last longer than traditional toothpaste.
They contain no dyes or preservatives, and Bite's packaging is all recyclable and compostable, with no wasteful plastic hidden anywhere.
When it comes to plastic-free and vegan dental floss options, this one is a clear reviewer favorite on Amazon.
Made from plant-based, biodegradable bamboo fiber, this spool of floss comes in a glass jar that can be recycled or reused infinitely. It tears a little more easily than plastic floss, but we think that's a small concession to make.
Here's the hard truth: Your kitchen sponge has about a weeklong lifespan. We know it's painful to throw out a bright pink polyurethane sponge every few days, so why don't you switch to the dye-free, compostable Sqwishful sponges instead?
Made completely of plant-based cellulose, this pack of three parallelogram-shaped sponges arrives flattened and light as air. Just run them under water to activate their sponginess, and use them as you would normally.
Many beauty and skincare brands have a long way to go before they can be considered carbon-neutral, but By Humankind is doing its part by making eco-friendly products meant to leave no wasteful trace — like their shampoo bars.
These vegan, all-natural shampoo bars may feel a little different than squeezing the gel out of a plastic tube, but they lather and cleanse your hair just the same.
Stop microplastic fibers from polluting the oceanic ecosystem with the easiest eco-friendly product swap ever. Guppyfriend's transparent Washing Bags are made of recycled polyamide fabric, and they're woven to catch synthetic, non-biodegradable fibers that would normally be swept down the washing machine drain.
Anything that's not made of 100% cotton, linen, or bamboo fiber will likely be a good candidate for placing in this 29x19-inch bag.
The Force of Nature Starter Kit will have you cleaning smarter, not harder. To use, just fill up the included vessel with water, insert a cartridge pre-filled with salt and vinegar, attach it to the dock, and power it on.
The dock infuses the solution with an electrical charge, and by doing so actually changes the chemical compound of the solution into hypochlorous acid and sodium hydroxide. This super-charged solution cleans and deodorizes so thoroughly, it's even on the EPA's list of COVID-19 disinfectants.
Many toilet paper companies source their product by cutting down trees. On the other hand, Public Goods' Tree Free toilet paper comes from fast-growing, pesticide-free bamboo and sugarcane.
The paper in this eight-pack is just as soft and strong as regular paper, and it's septic-safe, too.
At this point, the sight of those enormous plastic bags in the grocery store produce aisle is nothing short of cringeworthy.
Stock up on this set of nine mesh produce bags, so you can keep all of your produce separate and easily visible for the checkout counter, without using an excess of plastic in the process.
Disposable flatware is often a double whammy of single-use plastic wrapped up in even more plastic, and they’re a huge part of our plastics problem. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, “more than 100 million pieces of plastic utensils are used by Americans every day.”
While you can always combat this by packing your own silverware with you from home, we like this camping utensil set’s neat packaging and sleek, long-lasting stainless steel build.
Keep your emergency supply of plastic water bottles somewhere out of sight and out of mind — a durable, non-disposable water bottle is what you should be using on the daily.
Hydro Flask is beloved by reviewers (and, it must also be noted, VSCO girls) for making high-quality insulated drinking vessels. This one is touted for keeping drinks ice-cold all day long.
There's simply no need to buy polyester, fragrance-coated, single-use dryer sheets anymore — especially when making the switch to wool dryer balls to break up your laundry loads couldn't be easier.
Able to be used in countless dryer cycles for upwards of a year, these softball-sized, 100% New Zealand wool dryer balls are touted by users for their effectiveness at reducing the drying time and number of wrinkles in each load.
You can use all six balls in the dryer for extra-large loads, or just pop in two or three for a smaller cycle.
Looking for a non-disposable alternative to tampons and pads (or menstrual cups, if that's not your thing)? Thinx's line of ultra absorbent underwear is here for you.
We tried out their Classic Starter Set, and while wearing their Hiphugger style alone may not be suitable for extra-heavy flow days, our tester noted, “They are perfect for added protection that doesn’t require using disposable, landfill-clogging pads.”
Their stretchy cotton/nylon blend provides unlimited wears, and although the underwear is hand-wash only, it's a small step to remember that'll prevent a whole lot of waste.
Hair removal is a personal choice in many respects. Swapping to a hair-plucking epilator may not be for everybody because there's some physical sensation to get used to, but it has the major benefit of being a waste-free alternative to disposable razor heads.
Reviewers like this rechargeable model from Braun for its ease of use. Its sensor technology makes it far less painful to use than similar epilators.
What kind of reusable shopping bag is best? Whichever type you’re able to remember to bring to the store with you!
We love using BAGGU’s vibrant reusable bags, if only because their lightweight shapes can be easily folded up into the smallest of compartments and stashed into a pocket (or any other bag that we carry regularly).
Here's one tech innovation that has us really excited: compostable phone cases. Pela Case uses a proprietary material called Flaxstic, which comprises a flax-straw-based bioplastic. It's bendy, grippy, and can keep your device protected for up to a 20-foot drop. They come in all sorts of different designs and colors for pretty much any Apple or Android phone that you can buy.
The eco-friendly products from Pela Case don't just look good: They do good, too. The brand is a member of 1% for the Planet, which donates a portion of its profits to vetted environmental organizations.
Kiss your K-Cups goodbye. Steeped Coffee's robust flavors (made in partnership with Counter Culture coffee) are as enjoyable as they are simple to use. You can steep this ground coffee in hot water, just like a tea bag.
When we tried Steeped Coffee for ourselves, our tester gave the whole experience top marks: “The process is simple, cleanup is easy, and the package is completely portable, so you can make it pretty much anywhere you have access to hot water.”
Their guilt-free, sustainable packaging also has us hooked. The outer package is made of compostable and renewable materials, while the actual sachet is completely biodegradable.
By now, you're probably well aware that plastic straws are canceled. This 16-piece stainless steel set comes with both straight and bent straw shapes, all tipped with silicone for a comfier drinking experience. The set even includes four brushes to keep them squeaky clean.
Melanie YatesSenior Home Decor EditorMelanie is the senior home decor editor of Best Products, where she's been researching and testing out home and bedding products since 2015 — her work can also be found on House Beautiful and Women's Health.
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