Did you know that most traditional cleaning products are made up of up to 90% water?
The modern cleaning sector is mostly based around shipping around bottles containing up to 90% water, usually with plenty of unnecessary packaging and scary ingredients.
We all know that the climate crisis and plastic waste is a huge problem but one way can reduce your impact is by switching to soluble cleaning products. These eco-friendly cleaners are concentrated cleaners in liquid form, sachets or sheets that you dissolve in tap water meaning all you have to do is pop one into an empty spray bottle, fill it up, give it a good shake and start cleaning.
Why are soluble cleaning products better?
Refilling your own cleaner bottles is already more sustainable than buying new plastic bottles over and over. And by choosing products that are equally effective as your regular cleaners (which are 90% water anyway) but with natural ingredients and biodegradable and vegan formulas, you can’t go wrong.
Refill bottles, drops, sachets and soluble sheets are much smaller and lighter to transport which means less packaging waste, a smaller carbon footprint and less cluttered storage in your home.
Three of our favourite brands of concentrated cleaners are Neat, Ocean Savers and Tru Earth.
Plant-based and plastic-free cleaning from Neat
We love the neat. philosophy to give people simple solutions to help fight the plastic crisis. Neat's founder, Irishman Ryan McSorley, designed neat. to be both eco-friendly and aesthetically pleasing with gorgeous fragrances that we're more used to finding in scented candles and diffusers than in traditional cleaning products.
Neat delivers brilliant results with no single-use plastic and without the need to ship unnecessary water, while keeping single use plastic out of landfill.
Just add tap water, shake and you’re ready to go!
Neat. will save you space as the super-concentrated cleaners come in tiny glass bottles. You just add the concentrated cleaner to your bottle with tap water, shake well and you’re ready to go!
You can reuse any suitable spray bottle you have at home or pick up a reusable glass or plastic spray bottle or use neat’s own super-chic aluminium neat. refill bottle. The neat starter packs include a refill bottle and one bottle of concentrate and is a great place to start.
The concentrated cleaner comes in a tiny 30ml size but this packs a punch, giving you 500ml of multi-surface cleaner when mixed with 470 ml of tap water. Just add it to your bottle of water, shake well and you are ready to go.
Uniquely fragranced cleaners for every cleaning job!
As well as the original range of multi-surface cleaners, new additions to the neat range include an anti-bacterial multi-surface cleaner, an antibacterial bathroom cleaner and a glass cleaner.
The multi-surface cleaner is suitable on most surfaces including wood, glass, stainless steel, tile, laminates, unsealed stone, granite and marble. If you have marble worktops you will love the soft silicone base on the aluminium bottle means it lands with a whisper on hard surfaces which is strangely satisfying.
Some of neat’s unique fragrances include mango & fig, sage & mint, seagrass & lotus and our personal favourite, grapefruit & ylang ylang. There’s also a fragrance-free cleaner in the range.
Ocean Saver - natural, non toxic cleaning sachets
Ocean Saver EcoDrops are concentrated, plant based, non toxic cleaning refills that transform to a liquid cleaner when added to water. The fully biodegradable drops are lab tested, have proven efficacy and are super simple to use. Add one drop to an empty plastic trigger bottle, fill with water and shake – don’t throw away any old cleaning bottles, reuse them with the ocean drops!
Ocean Saver was born out of a love for the ocean and the scary statistic that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans. Ocean Saver's mission is to save two million plastic bottles from reaching the ocean by 2022.
Leave your home sparkling clean
Ocean Saver EcoDrops power through soap scum, smears, germs and grime, leaving all areas of your home sparkling clean.
Whatever surface you want to clean, Ocean Saver provide drops for different surfaces including bathrooms, floors, kitchens, glass or multi-purpose options
Just add one eco drop to water and shake
Add one eco drop to an empty trigger bottle, fill with water, shake and off you go. Each drop should be used with 750ml of water and we have two styles of reusable Ocean Saver Bottles available in that size to make it even easier for you
Laundry Strips are the zero waste answer to laundry pods
Laundry strips are pre-measured, biodegradable sheets of detergent that instantly dissolve into clothing with water. And, just like a laundry pod, they’re incredibly effective in fighting stains, removing dirt and grime and preventing clothes from fading, using natural cleaning power that’s safe for sensitive skin.
Unlike laundry pods they are not packaged in plastic tubs. They come in 100% plastic-free packaging that takes up less space than an RTE Guide.
You might be surprised to know that the outer packaging of laundry pods contain plastic! “The outer packaging is made from a water-soluble polymer (polyvinyl alcohol) and this polymer contains a toxic monomer called vinyl acetate, which can harm aquatic lifeforms and causes tumours in rats.” (Irish Times). Tru Earth laundry strips on the other hand, contain no plastic at all and only non toxic ingredients that are safe for you and won’t harm our waterways.
Their compact size and lightweight design make them easier to ship, leading to a lower carbon footprint. Tru Earth's strips, for example, weigh 94 percent less than the typical 40 grams of liquid detergent needed to wash a load of laundry.
Ultra concentrated cleaning power
Each Tru Earth Laundry Eco Strip Packs contain ultra-concentrated, hypoallergenic, eco-friendly cleaning power in a tiny, pre-measured strip of liquidless laundry detergent that you just toss in the wash. Both the Fragrance-Free and Baby Friendly are hypoallergenic.
They make your laundry washing easier, healthier, more economical, and are much kinder to our planet. Our most popular fragrance in the range is Fresh Linen, followed by Baby and there’s also a Fragrance Free version available for sensitive skin.
Are they strong enough to clean very dirty clothes?
The new Platinum Heavy Duty version of the strips contain an advanced formula that has heavy duty cleaning power for the dirtiest clothes.
Tru Earth Platinum heavy duty laundry detergent strips are a great choice if you need a bit of extra cleaning muscle to clean caked on dirt, smelly gym clothes, tough odours and work clothes. Tru Earth Platinum is our most advanced formula yet, and helps remove oils, grease, blood, and even smoke from your clothes.
Do laundry strips really work?
Yes, they really do! We're fans of them in our house and tend to alternate between the strips and our Eco Egg. Clothes come out clean and smelling fresh but unlike traditional detergents the smell is not that strong synthetic fragrance that seems to linger forever.
To use, you just tear off a laundry strip, pop it in the washing machine and add clothes. They work in all washing machines and will dissolve in hot or cold water and are septic tank friendly.
Are you ready to make the switch?
These days there's no need to sacrifice cleaning power and convenience for green credentials when making the switch to an eco friendly alternative.
There's such a great range of eco friendly options now that look good, smell good and really work.
So while we still have to roll up our sleeves to get the bath and toilet sparkling clean, at least now we can do it in style, while being a bit gentler on the planet.
See our full range of natural cleaning products.