Tag: sustainable dish soap

Welcome to YouChoose, a blog where we explore ways of living sustainably. This week I would like to talk about living without dish soap.

You may think it is ridiculous to write post about such a trivial topic, however this is one small step that goes a long way in reducing plastic pollution and reducing deforestation due to palm oil demand. I have been living without a specialized dish soap for some time since I came to the realization that I didn’t need one. Here are a few reasons to give up dish soap:

• Liquid soap comes in a plastic bottle that ends up in a landfill or in the ocean
• Some dish soaps contain petroleum based ingredients
• Almost all commonly available dish soaps contain products derived from palm oil

Fortunately there are alternatives to big brand dish soap and I invite everybody to take the time to explore palm oil free and plastic free products for the dishes suitable for our own specific needs. On my end I tried a few solutions and settled for a simple olive oil soap bar.

The bar comes in a paper box, just rub the bar on the dish cloth and you will get a nice foam that works really well even with oily pots and pans and doesn’t leave any residue on glass. Soap de Marseille is also effective, however most of it, these days, is unfortunately produced with palm oil instead of olive oil, so one needs to be careful to find the traditional one made with olive oil.

Another advantage of olive oil soap bars is that they are hard and last a long time without disintegrating under water.

What are you waiting then? Eliminate something you don’t need, reduce plastic pollution, and reduce deforestation all in a small step. Can’t go wrong!

The YouChoose app provides several links and information on products and cosmetics ingredients that are unsustainable and bad for the environment.