Plastic Pollution and Laundry: What Can We Do?

By Cara Graham 

One of the few joys of lockdown is undoubtedly the anticipation of the arrival of an online shopping parcel. With non-essential shops closed for months on end, I've found myself resorting to eBay, Depop, and various other virtual outlets to get my fix of shopping-induced serotonin. One such parcel I recently eagerly awaited for: my new laundry capsules.

Credit: Getty Images

    Smol is an independent UK-based company that delivers high-quality, eco-friendly, and ethical cleaning products, none of which are tested on animals. I recently tried out their laundry capsules, which are delivered through the letterbox in plastic-free packaging; the cardboard design even features a child-lock mechanism. These capsules are 100% water-soluble, preventing more plastic from needlessly entering the ocean. They claim to be 'the most concentrated laundry capsule' on the market, and for this reason, are physically very small, reducing their amount of necessary packaging, as well as the carbon footprint of transport.¹ 

    Before the pandemic, another sustainable laundry alternative was simply refilling your container when running low on liquid detergent, back, of course, in the days when things were actually open. Shops up and down the country accommodate this, as, for example, the Highland Soap Company on Market Street here in St Andrews. This solution to reduce plastic use and waste follows the same simple idea that's gotten everyone using reusable water bottles in recent years.² While it has taken some time, water refill stations can now be found in almost every University of St Andrews building, and one has even cropped up outside the public library here in town. This demonstrates at the very least an acknowledgment of public trends — 85% of people surveyed by City to Sea were concerned about the impact of plastic pollution on the environment, which has inclined consumer buying habits away from single-use plastic products such as water bottles.³ This is promising for this possibility of seeing more refill options available for other products like laundry detergent. While prices can vary, often refill options are dirt cheap, much more so than buying a new bottle. From my experience, it is the price of plastic packaging that tends to drive up the cost of many products, and by cutting this cost, one can also cut plastic waste.

    A brand like Ecover, stocked in a range of UK supermarkets, is a sustainable, easily accessible choice for wash day. They offer perhaps the largest range in terms of scents using biodegradable ingredients, which are all plant-based and thus vegan-friendly. Their single-use products are also somewhat redeemed by the fact that their newest bottle design uses 100%, and the cap 50%, post-consumer recycled plastic. Perhaps most impressively, Ecover’s factory is certified Zero Waste, where 98.1% factory waste is diverted from landfill.⁴

    In the UK, 556 million bottles of laundry detergent are discarded every year.⁵ We could easily work to reduce this number by making small changes in our weekly routines. And a great place to start is with the Christmas morning-type excitement that comes when your delivery of new laundry capsules arrive.

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1. laundry detergent delivered through your letterbox | smol.

2. Zero waste strategies in product design: refill stations | Unpacking Design.

3. Refill | City to Sea.

4. Cleans & Protects | Ecover Biolaundry Liquid.

5. Plastic-free laundry detergent in the UK | consciouslyeco.