We are two friends living on opposite coasts (Brooklyn, New York and Santa Monica, California) that share a passion for living a minimal, zero waste lifestyle and on a mission to help others do the same.
Harper. Lives in Brooklyn with a +1. Sassy pup. Matcha. Wine. Whiskey. Cheese. Proscuitto.
Charley. Lives in Los Angeles with a +1. Doofy pup. Coffee. Wine. Whiskey. Cheese. Pasta.
All in The Roundups
After trying and reviewing 125 (and counting) zero-waste and eco-friendly home products, we thought it miiight be nice to organize all these articles and make it easier for you to find them all — whether you’re looking for our big roundups or all of the compostable dog poo bags that we’ve tried!
This was tough because there are so many good brands minimizing harmful ingredients, emissions, and plastic: Ecover, Dropps, and Thrive Market dishwasher powder were some of our best picks. Based on ingredients that were phosphate free, fragrance-free (optional), hypoallergenic, and chlorine-free. Dirty Labs is great runners up given their limited ingredients and super concentrated powder but it is on the pricy side.
Pipette sunscreen is the clear winner from the list we reviewed. The sunscreen has best ingredients, baby-friendly formula, limited cast, and a reasonable price point. We thought the other options (aside from La Roche-Posay) were also reasonable mineral sunscreen choices.
Overall, MAYBE buy. The small garbage bags are good if used for composting — they are also cheaper than the composting competition. HoldOn uses much better materials that consume less energy, which is great. Additionally, we expect the trash bags to compost, even in landfill conditions. The kitchen zipseal storage bags are great to use - especially for marinating when tight on time (which is often). We like that you can toss them in the compost when you are done with them rather than the trash and that they compost in weeks. More expensive than typical plastic zip bags, but cheaper than the alternative composting one. The trade-off for all of the products is worth it if you can afford it.
MAYBE buy. Mintly’s toothpaste, toothbrush and floss are very clean from an ingredient standpoint. However, we were not any more impressed with the products over other brands we’ve tried. Plus, cost-wise, Mintly is pretty much in line with the other brands, not making it any more enticing to buy. Lastly, we really like that there is an ingredient to re-mineralize teeth (fluoride) but we would slightly prefer nHap
BUY (Definitely for the toothpaste!). Huppy: zero-waste, plant-based toothpaste! (We did it, we rhymed.) We really like the ingredients of Huppy - all natural and contains a fluoride alternative called nHap. The bamboo toothbrush is ok - just based on cost while the floss is probably a skip from us. Note: zero waste toothpaste is just going to be a lot more expensive than drugstore brands. However, we like that the active ingredient is nHap, so if your budget allows, we think the switch could be worth it.
BUY - if you can afford the extra cost (about $110 per year, per person), then the products are great. Our only issue with Bite is how expensive the products are — particularly the toothpaste bits. All of the pros are: a fluoride alternative (nHap), cruelty-free (not tested on animals), zero-waste (cardboard, paper and glass packaging), compostable bamboo toothbrush, compostable vegan floss, and toothpaste bits that taste like berry vitamins. From a quality perspective, Bite is a great product.
It’s a BUY! - we like Thrive Market and think its worth the membership. As a B-corporation, it houses organic, sustainable pantry (and frozen food!) items with some home goods like TP and laundry/dishwasher detergent powder.
We’ll hit you with the bad now: it seems pricey. Membership is $59.95/year and prices look expensive. That said, it is a delivery service that charges nothing for delivery >$49. We compare to Whole Foods in this review, and we think over the course of the year, you can get out ahead by just switching the dishwasher detergent to Thrive Market (details below!).
NOT a haul we recommend. The recycled loofah was a highlight, but unfortunately not enough for the whole haul. We liked using almost everything in this haul (zero waste dish soap, natural sponges, laundry sheets, laundry sheet), but we were confused at the hand soap sheets. Moreover, many items were on the pricey side - the biggest reason for our overall no recommendation
BUY: While Habitat Botanicals has the Buy One, Get One Free Daily Essentials kit, we recommend a BUY on the set! This way, you would get to try out all of the individual products and get a flavor for what you like! If you want to go down the individual route, we would recommend the zero waste shampoo, conditioner, and vegan deodorant. While the body wash was nice to use, it’s a bit pricy (not as pricey as liquid body wash though), as is the lip balm.
byHumankind loses points for a (very light but) slightly weird smell and residue. Wild also gets points off for residue (come on guys). Myro and Public Goods (not zero waste) win the scent and texture game (silky!) but not the price (Myro) or zero-waste (Public Goods) game.
Since all of the refillable or zero-waste options are already crazy expensive compared to drugstore brands, if we had to pick one, we would pick Hammond Herbs given its decent texture, no residue, light scent, and zero-waste.
Sadly, we are a no on byHumankind’s Shower Routine. Given that we are iffy on 2/3, we are a no on the whole kit.
NOT a buy. The Seventh Generation Zero Complete Bundle for home cleaning includes the hand washing powder, toilet bowl cleaner powder, laundry tablets, dishwasher tablets, kitchen cleaner powder and bathroom cleaner powder. For a lower price, the whole home bundle omits the hand washing powder, which we like.
The ingredients are non-toxic and the canisters are made of steel — the world’s most recycblable material. However, as an example, with dishwasher powder, we prefer Seventh Gen’s old school powder in a cardboard box, which is already pretty zero waste.
We have tried a number of eco-friendly, plastic-free or low-waste laundry options — including pods, packs, sheets, and powders — including Meliora, Cleancult, Dropps, Sheets Laundry Club, Grove Collaborative and more. We took a look at cost per load and estimated annual cost assuming that a typical family of four probably generates between 8 and 10 loads of laundry per week.
We like Grove’s mission of being a b-corporation and its curation of eco-friendly, zero-waste and natural brands —we are going to use it like our online convenience store.
Based on the money report, the fact that Grove Collaborative is a b-corp, we feel comfortable suggesting the VIP membership if recurring items are in your basket. Otherwise, there is no necessary commitment to support your favorite green brands by purchasing through Grove Collaborative — you would just need to hit the threshold for free shipping; otherwise shipping is $4.99.
Pubic Goods has incredibly clean packaging and an admirable mission of making sustainable and earth friendly products available on one site. Unfortunately, we barely break even when considering the cost of membership against the products we tried and would actually continue to order.
There are a lot of options when it comes to bamboo toilet paper. Our recommendation as follows after trying 12 (twelve!) of them (Reel, Who Gives a Crap, Go No. 2, PlantPaper, Better Way, Silk ‘n Soft, Cheeky Panda, Cloudpaper, Brandless, Package Free, Grove Collaborative Seedling, Bippy) depends on whether you are optimizing for softness, value, or sustainability.
We like ingredients we can pronounce - and Pubic Goods does a great job in making sure their products have only simple, organic ingredients. We love some of their products, but unfortunately some miss the mark.
