Ever since the War On Waste aired on the ABC, more and more Australians are taking a closer look at some of their waste and how to reduce it without interfering too much in every day life. There are simple things that many of us do already, grabbing reusable shopping bags, carrying a reusable coffee cup, setting the family up with water bottles they refill and carry with them each day. We have even seen an increase the sale of bamboo toothbrush choices over plastic handles for adults and kids and a general increase in our plastic free range in general.

One area we get asked about a lot is how to reduce plastic in the laundry. There are choices in our natural cleaning products to buy in bulk to use less plastic and we do also have completely plastic free options as well. Most cleaning products come in a plastic bottle. For ease of dispensing, especially for sprays, it's hard to move away from them completely. Just remember, being able to refill and reuse is a step in the right direction for things that you can't go zero waste with.

The Low Plastic Option - refill & reuse

You prefer to stick with traditional types of products, and that's ok. You can still reduce the amount of plastic you use by choosing to buy the small size in a brand once and then buying bulk refills to cut down on the amount of plastic you're using. You will also save money. This is the Abode Toilet Cleaner. Like everything else in the range, you can buy a 5L or 5KG option.

 you buy just once for $6.95. It's 750ml in capacity. When you finish with it, save the bottle. It works out at $9.27 per litre.

 is the 5 litre refill. It's $35.95 and works out at only $7.19 per litre. It is over 20% cheaper by volume than the smaller jars. The bottles are all recyclable, but this option saves you money and uses less plastic.

Visit the Abode Cleaning Products category and you will find bulk sizes for Laundry Powder, Laundry Liquid, Fabric Softener, Toilet Cleaner, Dishwashing Liquid, Surface Spray & Floor Cleaner. So while we're talking about laundry products here, I actually wanted to show you that Abode allows you to continue this through the whole house.

Choosing cleaning products that are concentrated is also a great idea to cut down on waste and shipping liquid around. From the doTERRA range, the On Guard Cleaner Concentrate is a great all purpose cleaner boosted with the essential oils in their On Guard blend which is great for cleaning. It includes orange, clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus & rosemary essential oils. Citrus oils are great for grease cutting, clove for mould, eucalyptus as a natural disinfectant and rosemary is great for eliminating odour.

The castile soap from Dr Bronner's may look like an expensive body wash at a first glace, but it is far more concentrated than other products in the same genre. It can also be used for 18 or more uses. Not just a body wash in the shower, you can do your dishes with it, use it as bubble bath, shaving soap, a laundry liquid, all purpose spray, fruit & veg wash and more. It is also available in a 3.8 litre bottle at 20% off every day, saving you money and using less plastic than multiples of the smaller bottles.

The Zero Waste Option - Soap Nuts

You can take your laundry to that zero waste option with soap nuts. When you buy the 1kg bag, it's 11 cents per wash and the soap nuts we sell from That Red House are a plastic free company every step of their manufacturing and packaging process. When we send out your order here, we are the same. You can also boil the soap nuts and refill any spray bottle in the house to make your own surface spray. To sweeten the deal, with every bag of soap nuts sold, we give away bamboo pegs. They are biodegradable and come in a cardboard box and have less tannins in them than wooden pegs. Your free pegs are auto-added to your shopping cart.