Reviewing 8 Sustainable Swaps: What I Love and What I Can Live Without

It’s Plastic Free July! I love this month because of how much awareness this movement brings to the topic of plastic. We’re into our fifth Plastic Free July and this has me thinking of all the swaps we have tried over the years. Some sustainable swaps I love and some I can live without, so I thought I’d share some of these with my honest thoughts. Now that I’m years into trying some of these swaps, I have a clear view on what works for me and what doesn’t.

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Sustainable Swaps I Love

Some sustainable swaps I absolutely love and am so glad that I’ve tried. Most of these that I love are because they not only reduce waste but also save me money.

Reusable Napkins

I rarely use paper towel because I use cloth napkins for meals and cloth rags for any messes. I found a set of small towels for sale on Marketplace that I snapped up and have been using these for years as my napkins. I cut up old sheets and clothes for rags and, if I ever have a spill, I reach for those before I reach for paper towel.

I love that I reduce my waste and all that plastic packaging that comes with paper towel. I also love that I save money overall because I rarely need to purchase paper towel–though my household does still on occasion.

Silicone Baking Cups

Reusable baking cups are one of my favourite things. They work so much better for me than paper cups or simply greasing the pan. Also, similar to paper towel, buying paper liners come with wasteful packaging. I have two sets of silicone baking cups and both came packaged in cardboard.

The only thing I dislike about the reusable cups is that they are a bit of work to wash up. I’m not sure I would trust the dishwasher to get all the folds of the silicone cups clean, but I honestly haven’t given it a try.

I love that my muffins come out of the cups nice and cleanly. I always have the paper cups stick to my baking, so the reusable cups work a lot better for me.

Reusable Toilet Paper

This is not a sustainable swap I ever thought I’d try, but I’m really glad I stepped out of my comfort zone. Used with a bidet, cloth toilet paper is a great option for reducing the amount of toilet paper we go through. For me, the benefit of reusable toilet paper is definitely the cost savings.

I keep a garbage bin with a lid beside the toilet as a little laundry hamper, so soiled cloths and cloth period pads can go in there separate from my other laundry. It’s also a really convenient way to do it!

I feel like once I got past the ick factor of the reusable toilet paper, I was able to embrace how much better cloth toilet paper feels that using paper.

If you don’t want to buy reusable toilet paper, it would be easy to cut up an old flannel sheet or two and turn them into homemade TP.

Cloth Period Pads

Similar to reusable toilet paper, there seems to be a strong reaction to the idea of using reusable period pads. I love them so much. They feel so much healthier to use and are a lot more comfortable.

Then there’s the bigger benefit of saving loads of plastic from the landfill. I write a pretty in depth review of period pads here: Plastic Free Period. I still love them years later!

The downside to these is that they are a bit of an investment at first. I started buying a couple, then added a few more as I was able.

Shampoo Bars

I was willing to give shampoo bars a try because the thought of reducing my plastic use was a big incentive. I have a lot of hair, so I wasn’t sure if a shampoo bar would work well enough to clean my thick head of hair. The bars that I’ve tried so far have really done the trick, though! Once I got the hang of using the shampoo bar, I felt they washed just as well as any liquid shampoo I’ve tried.

Shampoo bars look so small in comparison to a bottle of shampoo, which made me worry at the beginning that it would cost exponentially more to use the bars. It turns out that the shampoo bars last such a long time, so the costs in my opinion when compared to liquid shampoo is similar if not a little bit better.

The main downside for shampoo bars for me is that they tend to be scented–and scented a lot. I noticed this when trying to find an unscented bar for my mom to try. I struck out when searching. The closest I found was a shea butter scent that was still unusually strong. It was disappointing because scent tolerances vary between people and this is a real barrier for people like my mom to trying the shampoo bars.

Sustainable Swaps I’m not Crazy About

Some sustainable swaps just don’t work or just don’t work well enough for me to be crazy about them. While these are worth a try to save on waste, they are not sustainable swaps I’ve kept using on a daily basis.

Reusable Snack Bags

There are a couple of types of reusable snack bags that I’ve tried to use. The first is the harder plastic reusable bag type and the second is cloth reusable bag type.

I wasn’t a fan of the plastic reusable bags, not simply because they were plastic, but because I found their shapes and stiffness difficult to use. I also found them a pain to clean. If I have a Ziploc bag, for example, I can simply turn it inside out and give both sides a good clean. This wasn’t possible with the plastic reusable bags that I tried. The benefit to the plastic reusable bags is that they close with a really good seal, so whatever you put inside will stay fresh.

I found the cloth reusable bags to be much better for feel with use. They are more malleable, which for some reason made them feel better to use. These bags are also much easier to clean as they can go straight into the laundry machine and be hung up to dry. I love this feature the most!

My challenge with the cloth reusable bags is that they close with a zipper and do not get fully sealed. So if I wanted to take a muffin to work, for example, it would be a little stale if I put it in a zippered bag. I still do use these types of bags for packing things like trail mix on day trips. I also use these bags for going to the pool and holding my phone and keys. So, while I don’t get to use these bags often for food purposes, I do still find them useful.

Conditioner Bars

I would love to say I have found a fantastic conditioner bar to use that has fully replaced my liquid hair conditioner in plastic bottles, but I unfortunately have not. I have tried a few conditioner bars through the years, but they have all left my hair with a stripped feeling and they have not helped to detangle my hair. This has been disappointing because of how much I love shampoo bars, but it’s the truth.

Beeswax Wraps

I do understand why beeswax wraps became a popular sustainable swap to plastic wrap. While they are not my favourite thing to use, they are much better for the planet than plastic wrap (which is something I refuse to use).

I don’t mind them when I am wrapping up a piece of produce like half an avocado, but I don’t like the way the beeswax wraps wrap around a bowl or other container. I think this might just be a personal preference as I don’t find my ways of wrapping and folding the beeswax wraps are very successful for sealing a container.

I’m also not a huge fan of having to wash the wraps by hand and air drying them. I never quite feel like I get them clean enough if there is some food that has gotten on them. It’s also hard for me to get passed the fact that beeswax wraps aren’t vegan, but I just learned that SWOP has vegan beeswax wraps! Check them out here: Vegan Beeswax Wraps

Sustainable Swaps – pros and cons

Sustainable swaps can be amazing, but they can also come with challenges. While not every sustainable swap is going to be a winner, the ones that are are great additions to my household. I find they save me money in the long run and help me reduce my waste substantially. I hope my strong opinions help you make some decisions about which sustainable swaps you try next!

If you’re looking for inspiration, check out our Plastic Free July tagged posts for loads of suggestions on how to reduce your plastic use and for many sustainable swap suggestions.

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