How Bulk Buying of Bathroom Products Can Lower Your Carbon Footprint

We all know that water usage in the bathroom is one of the biggest drains on natural resources. But it’s not just heating water, flushing toilets and running shower and bath taps that we have to watch out for, in terms of our environmental impact. In a year when the climate crisis is at the forefront of the whole world’s attention, we also have to consider our use of bathroom products like soap, shampoo and conditioner and think about what we can do to lessen our impact on the planet.

The impact of single use bottles

A May 2019 article in The Guardian highlights the acceleration of climate change brought about by the proliferation of single use plastic bottles. Throwaway plastic packaging – 99% of which is made from fossil fuels – accounts for 40% of the world’s demand for plastic. In the 1950s, production was at 2m tonnes a year. By 2015, this had risen to 380m tonnes, far outweighing the natural incline in usage based on population growth. The article goes on to cite a report by the Center for International Environmental Law, predicting that, by 2050, the global footprint for plastic production will be the equivalent of running 615 coal plants at full capacity.

It is clearly time to address our usage of single use bottles.

Bathroom products are some of the biggest culprits

Most of the news around single use bottles focuses on the mineral water industry, but even as far back as 2014, pharmaceutical companies like Johnson & Johnson were warning us about  single use shampoo bottles, saying that more than 552 million could end up in landfills every year, and encouraging us to recycle.

Whereas only a number of us use single use plastic water bottles and, even then, generally only when we’re on-the-go or get caught thirsty, the vast majority of the developed world relies on single use plastic bottles in its bathrooms and, yet, changing this habit is simply a matter of finding the right alternative products.

Bulk-buy soaps, shampoos and conditioners

Major cosmetics producers like Schwarzkopf produce salon-quality shampoo, such as their “Professionelle Care E&G” shampoo in 5-litre bottles so, even if you’re not ready to be so eco-friendly that you switch to a natural shampoo just yet, you can still buy more sustainably.

If you are ready to make the leap to more ecologically friendly shampoos, however, companies like Faith in Nature produce 5L bottles of shampoo at a very reasonable £35. That equates to £2.80 per 400ml (the capacity of the average shampoo bottle). So, not only will you be spending probably less than usual on shampoo, but you’ll be putting fewer toxic chemicals into the water supply and dramatically reducing your shampoo bottle usage by 12.5 times.

In the US, the top selling natural soap is Dr Bronner’s pure castile liquid soap, which comes in bottles of up to 3.8L in size, enabling you to reduce your single use shampoo bottle usage by 9.5 times. Advertised as a multi-use soap, it is purchased by hipsters, environmentalists and professionals alike as an all-in-one answer to the problem of cleaning face, body, hair and even dirty dishes(!) Grandson of company founder Emmanuel Bronner, Michael, says, “Our environmental commitment is captured in [our company value to] Treat the Earth Like Home!” Dr Bronner’s products are now available globally.

Re-using your old single use bottles

No one is suggesting that you take a 5-litre bottle into the shower with you, of course. Which is why it’s encouraged that you save those remaining shampoo and conditioner bottles currently taking up space in your bathroom. It only takes a couple of minutes to funnel out the liquid from your bulk container into one that’s small enough to take into the shower with you.

You can even build your shampoo and conditioner containers into your bathroom design, if you’d really like to get stylish and enhance that touch of luxury in your layout. Buy your favourite empty shampoo and conditioner bottles online and refill those, if you don’t like the idea of using branded bottles.

To find out more about how to lower your environmental impact in the bathroom, check out our article, giving you a few handy hints.