The humble bar of soap, now replaced by liquid soap dispensers in many bathrooms around the country, is truly the original and best when it comes to both caring for the planet and being kind to your wallet.

Why bar soap is better for the planet

• Bar soap requires less packaging than liquid soap. It is easy to avoid single use plastics when purchasing bar soap. It can be purchased wrapped in paper or cardboard, both of which are easy to recycle. It can also be purchased completely unwrapped from places such as health food stores and markets.
• While the plastic bottle liquid soap comes in can be recycled if it has a pump on it, or soft plastic sleeve or sticker, these cannot be recycled in your kerbside bin.
• While recyclable, the plastic bottle liquid soap is stored in is made from non-renewable oil, while the cardboard and paper bar soap usually comes in, if sourced through FSC, is completely renewable.
• Liquid soap is mostly water (next time you use a bottle, check the ingredients list). This is an important consideration as the water makes the liquid soap bulkier and heavier, leading to significantly increased carbon emissions when it is transported.

In addition to the above, if you are hoping to look after your wallet as well as the planet, bar soap is often considerably cheaper.

But isn't bar soap less effective?

Believe it or not, accredited studies have proven that bar soap is as effective as liquid soap, even if the bar looks 'dirty'. This is because all soaps contain surfactants, which when combined with water and friction breakdown and remove dirt, oils and germs. When you lather up a bar of soap, the bar itself is cleaned, as well as your hands. It turns out the factor that influences dirt and germ removal the most is hand washing technique, not soap type.

Okay – but I still don't want to give up my liquid soap, I like it too much!

That's absolutely fine – there are many simple steps you can take to reduce the environmental impact when using liquid soap:

• Choose to refill. The pump on the liquid soap bottle is the most difficult part to recycle, and usually ends up in landfill. Many brands now offer larger refill bottles which have the added bonus of working out to be more economical.
• Check out the ever-growing range of hand wash tablets. Simply insert the tablet into your pump bottle add the correct amount of water and ta-da, you have a bottle of liquid soap. Tablets are available to make either regular or foaming liquid soap, and most come in either paper or home compostable packaging.
• Lastly, why not give bar soap another chance in some areas of your house? For example, you might want to stick with liquid soap by the sink, but try out bars in the shower or bath.

What about the other soaps and cleaning products around the house?

Hand wash tablets are only one small category in the soap revolution. Products which have traditionally always been liquid, such as shampoo and conditioner, are now available as bars or tablets, as are laundry liquids and other cleaning products. 

If you have tried any of these products, we'd love to hear what you think about them – email us at [email protected].