Do Your Part for a green clean! Most of us grew up using bar soap. Liquid soap wasn’t even on the market until 1980. Now all those bottles of liquid soap add up to more than a hundred million dollars in sales each year. But the big question remains: which is better — bar or liquid soap?
The answer: it depends!
From an environmental perspective, bar soap is usually the better buy. First, it requires much less packaging. There are no plastic containers and dispensers to fill up landfills.
Liquid soap containers add up to more than two million pounds of plastic trash each year. The paper and cardboard used in bar soap packaging are easily recycled. Secondly, bar soap just lasts longer! It turns out, people use more liquid soap during each wash because they over-estimate just how much they really need. One bar of soap can be used longer than a 12-ounce bottle of the liquid variety, and it costs less.
But there are a few other factors to consider. Health departments across the country point out that a small amount of bacteria can live on bar soap. This is fine if you and healthy family members are the only ones sharing the bar of soap. However, in kitchen and business environments, it’s probably better to go for liquid soap. Here’s where you can still be environmentally conscious. Make sure you don’t just throw out the liquid soap containers when they are empty. Instead, refill them from large jugs of replacement soap. That’s also cost conscious. You can buy a one gallon jug from a warehouse store for less than $10 and it will last months.
All of us use soap each and every day. So Do Your Part and take a minute to see how your choice of soap can impact the environment, your health and your wallet.