Solid Bars Reduce Plastic and Save Fuel

Solid Bars Reduce Plastic and Transportation Fuel!

- A guest post by One Earth Intern Isabel Jackson

We touch plastic every day. We eat out of plastic containers, we sit on plastic chairs, we drive cars that have parts made of plastic. We even wear plastic, whether that be those comfy jogging pants or the elastic in our underwear bands.

Plastic and Bodycare

By now, most people know that the excessive manufacturing and use of plastic is a monumental threat to the environment. It pollutes our waterways, harms wildlife, and is even correlated with decreased fertility. So why are we still using it in our bodycare? Plastic bottles dominate the bodycare market, and do we ever consider where they go after we throw them away? The proverbial “away”, which means our trash ends up going to a landfill to rot and produce harmful methane gas, is tossed in harmful incinerators, or ends up as terrestrial or marine debris.

And even if shampoo or conditioner bottles are technically recyclable, most don’t end up being recycled, due to issues in our recycling system. First, many plastic items are stamped with a symbol that looks exactly like the recycling symbol, and labeled with numbers 1-7, with each number correlating to a certain type of plastic. Something not everyone knows is that just because plastics have this symbol, it does NOT mean they are recyclable. When these confusingly labeled, non-recyclable plastics enter the recycling system, they clog up the machines and slow down the recycling of materials that actually are able to be recycled. Much of the United States (and other countries in the Global North) actually ships plastic and other recyclables to countries in the Global South, where it is rarely recycled and is often illegally dumped or burned. This results in major health risks and damage to the environment. 

Waste and Opportunity

It’s estimated that Americans throw out 550 million shampoo bottles every year. That’s a lot of plastic waste, and therefore a huge burden on our environment. But that’s not all; liquids are heavy, and therefore cost a lot to ship. Switching to a solid shampoo or conditioner bar not only helps the earth through sustainable packaging, it decreases the fossil fuels required to transport the products. 

Let’s break it down: One Earth shampoo bars are 2.1 oz and weigh 87.5% less than the equivalent 24-oz bottle of liquid shampoo. Weight is especially important when factoring in shipping costs, because the heavier something is, the more fuel it takes to transport it. Because shampoo bars weigh less than liquid shampoo and are a smaller volume, you can ship 11 times more shampoo bars than bottles of liquid shampoo for a given amount of fuel . Again, shipping has two direct costs: monetary, and environmental (which can be measured through carbon emissions). Choosing solid shampoo and conditioner bars over liquid products has an overall positive impact on the environment without compromising your hair care.