Is the Dish Soap Bar a Zero Waste Hero?
I never considered using a bar of soap for dishes until our customers asked us how to wash their etee wraps and bags.
Soap bars are for hands, bodies and butts, right?
Turns out, long before we worried about micro-plastics in our oceans, lakes and rivers, hard soaps were used to clean dishes.
I'm guessing that once plastic arrived, the convenience of liquid soaps (in throw away bottles) made bar soaps a bit of a Dinosaur. Let's be honest liquid soaps are super easy to use.
But here's the crazy thing. Most liquid dish soaps are about 90% water. And all those suds that look so good? They're largely cosmetic, they don't actually clean anything.
So what are you really paying for when you buy a liquid dish soap? Water, plastic and about 10% soap.
And that's probably why dish bar soaps are becoming popular again. Why? They're good for the environment AND they're economical.
DING DING! We have a winner.... Bar Soap IS the ANSWER!
Maybe, maybe not.
The fact of the matter is, Bar soaps can take some getting used to. It took our family a couple weeks to adjust to the first couple of prototypes.
We eventually I figured it out though. Grab a brush or etee's Loofie, wet it and rub the soap on. Bam you have a powerful cleaning tool. Want to soak hard to clean pots? Just run some water over your bar soap and let the soap melt into your pot. Voila.
So what do we do in our house now? We actually use both. Single plates and glasses? I find it easier to use the bar soap on my loofie and get cleaning - it's effective, fast and much cheaper (the bars last a long time when you use them this way).
Need to soak? I still prefer our plastic-free liquid dish soap.
Haven't tried a dish bar soap? What are you waiting for!
