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How to Cut Your Laundry Cost in Half in an Eco-Friendly Way

We did the math on the Dilutable Laundry Bar, which uses no plastic

By Rain Noe - May 11, 2020

in Sustainability

What is the heaviest item you typically purchase at the supermarket? My guess is it's your laundry detergent, which these days comes in gigantic plastic bottles that are over 100 ounces. As you know, most of the contents are water, which you already have a ready supply of at home. It is absurd to ship something that heavy from the factory to the distributor (and then to your home, if you're ordering online). Think of the emissions of the trucks, trains, ships or airplanes loaded up with pallets of these.

Life Without Plastic, the company we learned about here, offers an alternative that not only makes ecological sense, but is well cheaper than using store-bought detergent. Their Dilutable Laundry Bar, packaged in a recyclable paper sleeve, can be broken down and dissolved in a 64-ounce bottle you already have on hand, filled with water from your own tap. The resultant mixture will handle up to 125 loads, the company says. (And should you wish to break it down into smaller vessels, the company lists alternate portion sizes.)

Let's do some math. At Walmart, one of the products in their "Bestseller" category is a 154-ounce bottle of Tide detergent that costs $19.94 and is good for 107 loads. That works out to 19 cents per load.

19 cents per load

The Dilutable Laundry Bar's $10.95 price works out to 9 cents per load. That's less than half, and there's no new plastic involved.

9 cents per load

For those of you wondering about powdered detergent: For some reason, the economics there are even worse. At Walmart, a 56-ounce box of Tide powder laundry detergent runs $8.96 and is good for 40 loads. That works out to 22 cents per load.

22 cents per load

I don't mean to pick on Tide here; all of the major manufacturers are within the same price range, and I bring Tide up because that's the brand I currently use. But when the bottle I've got runs out, I'll give the bar a try.

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Gavin Lewis

4 years ago

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The economic argument kind of falls apart once you factor in $10 for shipping. Still love it though.

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Mike Nelson Pedde

4 years ago

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There's also https://www.tru.earth/ laundry strips. Bought some but haven't tried them yet. Economically they don't work out as well but the downgrade in environmental costs is huge.

Mike.

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- Mike Nelson Pedde
  
  Mike Nelson Pedde
  
  4 years ago
  
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  BTW, one of the things that intrigued me about this product is that it recommends 1 tbsp (15ml) for an average load. Look at the size of the cap on the laundry soap bottle. Now, have you read the instructions to see how much you need to use?
  
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