Most dish soap comes in a plastic bottle you toss every few weeks, and a lot of it contains dyes, synthetic fragrance, and petroleum-based surfactants. Plastic-free dish soaps fix both problems: solid bars and concentrated refills cut the packaging, and the best ones use plant-based ingredients that are gentler on your skin and the waterways … Read more
Conventional floss is a small piece of plastic you throw away every single day: nylon thread, petroleum wax, a plastic dispenser, and often a slick PTFE coating in the same chemical family as the nonstick compounds we avoid in cookware. The plastic-free alternatives have gotten good enough that there is no reason to keep buying … Read more
Avocado and Naturepedic are the two names parents land on after deciding a conventional crib mattress is not happening. Both are certified organic, both skip chemical flame retardants, and neither is cheap. The differences that should actually drive your decision are waterproofing, allergens, and materials philosophy. We compare those directly below; the wider field is … Read more
The Zero Waste ListVerdict ★★★★ 3.8/5 Pros Plastic-free cardboard packaging Featherweight shipping footprint Donates 10 loads of detergent per package sold Affordable and easy to find Fragrance-free version available Cons Sheets are made with PVA, a dissolvable plastic Less ingredient transparency than top rivals No MADE SAFE or Safer Choice certification on the sheets Where to buy: Shop … Read more
Babies sleep up to 16 hours a day, with their face inches from the mattress, so a crib mattress is one of the most important non-toxic purchases you’ll make. Conventional crib mattresses can off-gas VOCs and contain flame retardants and polyurethane foam. A certified non-toxic crib mattress avoids that. Here are the best. Brand Type … Read more
Stasher turned the humble plastic baggie into a durable, reusable silicone staple. It’s one of the most recognizable zero-waste kitchen products, and mostly earns the reputation, with a couple of asterisks. The Zero Waste ListVerdict ★★★★☆ 4.4/5 ✔ Pros Made from premium platinum silicone. BPA-, BPS-, lead-, and phthalate-free Certified B Corp (since 2017) Replaces countless single-use plastic … Read more
Caraway’s pastel ceramic-coated pots are everywhere, marketed as the safe, non-toxic upgrade from non-stick. On health, it largely delivers. On sustainability, the picture is more nuanced because of how ceramic non-stick ages. The Zero Waste ListVerdict ★★★★☆ 4.2/5 ✔ Pros Genuinely PFAS-, PTFE-, PFOA-, lead-, and cadmium-free coating Third-party tested for 200+ PFAS and 20+ heavy metals Made … Read more
Allbirds built its brand on sustainability, from merino-wool runners to a carbon label on every product. The materials story checks out; the open questions are durability and whether comfortable natural shoes can ever be low-impact. The Zero Waste ListVerdict ★★★★☆ 4.3/5 ✔ Pros Certified B Corp since 2016 First fashion brand to label 100% of products with their … Read more
Patagonia is the brand most people name when asked for a sustainable company, and unusually, the reputation holds up under scrutiny. In 2022 its founder gave the entire company away to fight climate change. Here’s what holds up and what to keep in perspective. The Zero Waste ListVerdict ★★★★½ 4.8/5 ✔ Pros Certified B Corp since 2013 with … Read more
No Tox Life is best known for its DISH BLOCK, a solid dish soap bar that’s become a zero-waste staple. It’s a small, family-owned brand doing plastic-free cleaning about as simply as it can be done. The Zero Waste ListVerdict ★★★★½ 4.5/5 ✔ Pros DISH BLOCK is 100% plastic-free, in recyclable paper packaging Ultra-concentrated: one 6 oz bar … Read more