Zero-Waste Swaps – Toiletries

Due to my MCAS disorder, I’m looking at swapping products but I figured I could use this same opportunity to make zero-waste swaps as well.

First, I’m looking at the things that I have the most contact with including soaps, foods, and cleaning supplies.  I’ve been eliminating foods as you can pick up in my Meal Planning series already so this post is about replacements for products that come into contact with my skin such as soaps and toothpaste.

Bodywash:

The thing that prompted all of this was running out of body wash.  I’ve been using Dove body soap for probably more than a decade thus far and I haven’t had skin irritation from it.  However, MCAS activation isn’t always isolated to the area of contact and it’s important to remove as many triggers as possible to lessen the “load”.  In this case, there is fragrance which is known to be an irritant for the entire population and is terrible for many migraine sufferers as well as MCAS. 

Since I’m not confident this will have any impact, my goals are to get a one-to-one price swap, get a functional product, and an improvement to the impact on the environment.  Only time and eliminating many potential products is likely to show an MCAS improvement but if I do notice an improvement right away that would be GOLD.

For the soap, I’m using two guides for the chemicals used.  The first is actually a “low-histamine diet” guide, so obviously eating the chemicals would be a stronger reaction as our skin has a tougher protective layer.  The second is the Environmental Working Group which focuses on skincare chemicals. 

Palm oil: this one’s a kicker.  It’s littered all over skincare products and is not unsafe, but has been a cause of deforestation, so it’s one to watch.  It also has a bad history of worker safety issues and improper reporting.  I didn’t fully research each manufacturer on their use of palm oils but tried to avoid them if possible.

Cooking oils: In skincare, I’m just going to watch for local reactions.  I know that Sunflower Oil and the like are bad for my intestines but I’m not sure how well my skin can tolerate it.  If I could find another option I would choose to avoid it, but … this is tough.  There is “Sodium Sunflowerate” in the replacement soap and “Organic Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil” in this first soap replacement.  It also has Coconut Oil in it which I have tolerated fine in my replacement lotion, even with broken and cracked skin.

The first replacement chosen was actually a castile oil-based liquid soap.  Then I realized that I would have to buy a dispenser and then a luffa replacement and the entire thing was becoming too much of an investment.  Since I was already making a change, why not go a bit further toward zero waste?  The other was simply going bulk and roughly fragrance-free.

The second replacement, and the first purchased, is Meliora Unscented Bath Soap.  The negatives above are that it involves sunflower oil and some sunflower compounds.  I know I can’t eat Sunflower Oil without skin irritation so this might be a deal breaker.  The pluses are Fragrance-free, common mast trigger-free, dye-free (many are mast cell triggers), preservative-free (almost all are mast cell triggers), and palm oil-free.  Additionally, the packaging is fully compostable paperboard and requires no additional containers.  I plan to swap out my falling-apart luffa for a washcloth for the time being.  I find washcloths work as well as luffas when it comes to soap bars and getting a lather.

The test:

1. No breakouts or sensitive skin reactions
2. Functions as well as the other for shaving and cleaning with no residual
3. Price/wash is the same (or roughly calculates the same)

Results:

I have not had any breakouts per se.  My skin had been a bit extra sensitive all summer and as far as I can tell this made no significant impact.  I’ve further increased medicines which seem to have it back under control.

Bar soap is often what you’re stuck dealing with in hotels and so I’m familiar with getting it sudsy enough to perform the same job.  My legs have not been irritated with shaving as I might have thought.  I do feel sticky initially after, which could mean I’m actually using too much soap but my skin feels soft afterwards.  This is okay.  It’s a strange transition.  We never had bar soap growing up so it feels strange, but really is an easy adjustment. 

I’m not terribly far in.  Gel soap and bar soap takes forever for me to go through.  I’m quite sure the bar will be annoyingly unusable toward the end.  I’m okay with this change so far, but I’m sure the price doesn’t work out the same, even with my brand pickiness.  I suspect 1 bottle would last me a year, and at this rate, 1 bar will last maybe 4 months.  You can get cheaper prices by ordering more bars but this is true with bottles as well.

After finishing the first bar, I tried the gel version of Castile Soap and I prefer the sudsy-ness of the gel castile soap. I’ve located a bulk shop in a nearby city that I could buy the soap from without any packaging. However, the bar of soap is not that bad and easier to find locally. I think I’ll try the bulk store before I make a final decision.

Dental Floss:

This is not something that you consume but … shockingly has some seriously unnecessary chemicals and has no known half-life.  The primary part that you would throw away will not break down in the environment.  High temperatures and this chemical can cause a chemical fever for workers.  Additional chemicals are used for lubrication and BHT is used to bind flavors in my current brand which is REACH. 

Consuming BHT in food makes me feel awful.  This chemical is very likely consumed while using the floss as particles and the flavor essentially melts in your mouth.

I opted to replace my dental floss with an activated charcoal wax-coated corn fiber.  The primary issue with this is the unnamed “vegetable” based wax.  I have allergic responses to many vegetables, but there’s really no way of knowing if this is a problem until I use it.  The gums are very sensitive tissue so it should be pretty quick to find out.  I wish they were more specific with ingredients. 

Note:  The other options were flavor options, which I opted out of simply to keep things very simple in ingredients.  Charcoal is used to keep the intestines and other tissue from absorbing chemicals so this should be safe as long as it doesn’t linger and it’s likely not a high enough quantity to block absorption of nutrients.

Later I found a biodegradable tooth flosser thing at The Dollar Tree and it worked very well.  I only used those while I was recovering from an injury in my hand, but it’s a viable trade for those who use plastic toothflossers.

Pros: it’s fully compostable, and has a replaceable inner cylinder of floss so the glass jar isn’t purchased again.  Charcoal is the “flavor”, with no preservatives, no added chemicals, and no common mast cell triggering compounds.

I am concerned about the peppermint oil (could be an issue for some and small children).  There doesn’t appear to be a reason for it except perhaps to make it more palatable.  It’s almost like doubling down on the charcoal.  My understanding is that peppermint oil can hurt some animals, bugs, and small children so this is an unwise choice.  Please do more research if you have or plan to have small children in the house or have pets that might get into it (dangerous anyway as it’s a fiber).

The price difference is likely not in my favor on this swap.  The Reach floss is about $1.50/container and I believe also has refillable options.  This container is plastic and doesn’t say that it can be recycled but likely can if you disassemble the cutter from the plastic. The eco swap product doesn’t appear to have as much on the roll but costs $4.88 for the first roll plus container which is a glass jar with a metal lid and a metal cutter insert.  Additional refills cost $9 for two refills of 108 yards combined.  The Reach floss is 55 yards/container and often goes on sale.  This makes this vegan floss a very poor replacement economically for the consumer, even after absorbing the hit of the initial container.

The Test:

1. No reaction by the gums (bleeding, swelling, irritation)
2. Functional replacement (doesn’t fall apart before finishing flossing and comparable to use)
3. Lasts as long as the Reach baseline if not longer

The upsides are really based on losing BHT and the compostable factor, but do they outweigh the hefty price tag?  This would be a personal choice.  Overall floss is a category that I constantly use and contributes to waste.  While the volume of waste produced is not large, this is exactly the type of plastic that can cause some serious internal issues to digestive systems in animals and humans and it currently does not break down.  The cost impact would be infrequent and likely unnoticeable in one’s budget.  Personally, I’ll look for a cost-down option on another product to offset this expense such as detergent or weed killers and household cleaning products.

Results

After some use, my gums had no response to the floss.  However, it doesn’t like some of my sharp fillings and does start to fall apart after I hit these areas.  I’ll try it a bit longer before making a final determination as it might be possible to simply change the order I floss my teeth to save these for last.  The charcoal also doesn’t stay on long so this probably is having no real impact.  The floss didn’t really split in half as much as the strands separated.  I think if you don’t have fillings this is an easy swap, though not budget-friendly.

Toothpaste:

Have you ever noticed your plumbing develop a rather disgusting layer of almost rubbery gunk?  Hello, toothpaste!  This daily-use item possibly contains conditioners and flavors that are linked to reproductive issues.  Overall, this isn’t considered toxic in the US.

This item replacement is not one I was initially going to replace but I wanted to try some alternatives to round out the core skin and dental care products.  Sadly, I added it without remembering to check against my two lists.

I currently use Sensodyne Spearmint Refresh, whatever it’s called, for sensitive teeth.  I have random tooth sensitivity, probably to food, and then more in the winter.  It’s typical for MCAS patients to have tooth sensitivity and I’m no exception.  Additionally, I have many fillings.

The replacement I selected was a tooth tablet.  My initial instinct is that this is not an equitable swap economically as tablets are clearly one-per-use rather than a tube that can be self-administered.  I selected Unpaste tooth tabs with 125 tabs, which they claim will last two months.  I have used my tube of toothpaste for I’m guessing 6 months.  The killer for me here is really the citric acid which is a known mast cell trigger, especially for the lungs!  So if this is directly exposed into the mouth it’s already very close to the respiratory system.  I selected Fluoride-free as it’s being added to most water supplies these days, and again, I want to keep the chemicals simple.

It looks like there is an alternative product that doesn’t claim to contain citric acid, though ingredients are unclear on the EarthHero site and EWG doesn’t show the tooth tablets.  The powder in glass does not appear to contain citric acid except in the orange flavor which is the only flavor safe for children or during pregnancy they provide.  Already this has been an annoying experience.

So, I returned the tablets.  I don’t understand why the tablets would have it but the powder does not.  I believe its primary use is as a preservative but the powder should also need it.  It also appears that growing bacteria cultures in your powder is relatively easy to do.  Toothpaste may be a lost cause.

I’m going to keep looking for options here, but I had to abandon it this time around.

Conclusion:

Most of these items were failures for me.  The eco-product prices are nowhere near as competitive which is likely the result of how easy plastics are to work with in manufacturing.  For the average person, the chemicals I’m trying to avoid are likely no risk to them.  However, paying nearly 4x more for everything is not economically feasible for the majority of people.

The soap is really the only thing I’ve kept using and I notice my skin looks, but doesn’t really act, dry all the time.  I’m having muscle cramps as well so there is likely more going on than just the soap.  I did swap back to gel soap in a plastic bottle though.  This is a mild discomfort thing that I could really overcome if I wanted to, but the bars didn’t last as long as I was hoping.

Alternatively, there are packaging options that claim to be zero waste for gel soaps, but I suspect it’s wax-lined or even plastic-lined and cannot actually be recycled.  I think the inner piece might get sent back and refilled, but I haven’t looked into those yet.

Overall, these swaps have been failures in the zero waste category and mostly failures as a whole.

Moving Forward:

I did a bit of research into bulk store options.  I do not have any non-food bulk stores in my city, but the city I now travel to about twice a week for work does have a great bulk store.  It’s not in the neighborhoods that I tend to get my large jobs in, but I was in the area just a few weeks ago.  I also have a pending job in that area, so I think I’m going to check it out soon.

This store also has bulk deodorant and more products than I’d ever want to use, so I do believe I’ll keep looking for options to try through there. So if you live in Omaha, NE here’s the link.

I’m also looking at trying the laundry detergent strips next.  However, they are not sold here yet and I hate to have to order them to be shipped individually.  I feel like that offsets any packaging benefits they have.