Over the last several years, I’ve made some low waste swaps in the bathroom. I am not perfect at this. Even though I care about the environment and reducing my plastic consumption, it still took me awhile to make some of these swaps. But hey, baby steps.

Here are the swaps I made — and also a look at how much they cost compared to the conventional items they replaced. As someone on a budget, I wanted to know how much these eco-friendlier options cost.

1. Recycled Toilet Paper

Probably the most impactful thing I did was swap out our toilet paper. When I read about the “tree to toilet” pipeline, I was horrified. I had no idea that most toilet paper sold in the United States is made from trees in an old growth boreal forest in Canada. (The National Resources Defense Council wrote a report, the Issue with Tissue, about this.)

More sustainable options include using recycled paper or bamboo TP. I ended up going with recycled for reasons I go into in this review of Who Gives a Crap. When I did the math, it ended up being similar in costs to conventional bath tissue.

2. Bidet

We also got a bidet. If you want something fancy, there’s Tushy, but we just got this simple, lower-cost one. Are we using more water? Maybe? But we don’t get the water bill in our rental, so I don’t actually know. Are we using less tissue? That’s the idea, but I can’t really say. I did not track our toilet paper usage before the bidet. While I wish I could definitively say that we are using less resources, I’m just not sure.

3. Reusable Cosmetic Rounds

I’m definitely using less cotton since I switched from disposable cotton rounds to reusable ones. I wrote an review of these rounds from Marley’s Monsters, but there are other makers too.  

These reusable cotton rounds cost $18 for 20 or $10 for 10. So over time, you break even, and then you save money. I’ve used the same set for more than four years now!

4. Plastic-Free Floss

Grossed out by all the plastic I was generating by flossing, I switched to Dental Lace. The floss as well as the packaging is all compostable, and the glass container is refillable.

They make two kinds: silk floss and vegan floss made out of corn. I tried both and didn’t like the vegan floss, which broke easily and often. The silk has a nice texture. However, sometimes a piece of floss will break and get stuck in my teeth. Ironically, I then have to use conventional plastic floss, which is stronger, to dislodge the silk one. So, the truth is the silk floss doesn’t perform as well as plastic floss.

Cost wise, I find floss, even the conventional stuff, really varies in price. Two 33-yard spools of Dental Lace refills cost $9. By comparison, for the same price you can get three 43-yard packages of Oral-B Glide plastic floss.

5. Bar Shampoo & Conditioner

I initially worried that bar shampoo wouldn’t lather well. But that’s not a problem at all with bar shampoo from LA Miss Apple, a brand I first encountered at Fillgood in Berkeley, CA. It lathers rather nicely! In addition to being plastic-free, it takes up way less space than a plastic bottle of shampoo. I’m about to try another brand, HiBAR, that makes a bar conditioner too, so I’ll report back.

One bar costs $15, but it lasts a long time. I don’t have exact data, but my impression is that it lasts much longer than a bottle of shampoo. A little goes a long way.

6. Plastic-Free Cleaners

This plastic-free toilet bowl cleaner from Blueland cleans well and smells great. It does cost significnatly more than the conventional stuff, though. I estimated that it would cost me about $30 more per year. Read my full review here. I also switched to Blueland bathroom cleaner for surfaces, reviewed here, which saves money after the initial cost of the refillable spray bottle.

And a Few More

I haven’t personally tried all of these, but here’s a few more ideas:

7. Plastic-Free Deodorant – Brands like PAPR make natural deodorant in biodegradable paper packaging.

8. Plastic-Free Toothpaste – Toothpaste tabs and toothpaste that come in glass jars, not plastic. There are many brands to choose from, including Bite, Unpaste, By Humankind, and Georganics.

9. Bamboo Toothbrushes – I mostly use a Sonicare, but I did try Brush With Bamboo and thought the brush head was too big for my small mouth. Mable (pictured at the top of this post) makes a toothbrush with a smaller brush head and a cool tapered design where it can stand on its end.

10. Bar Soap – This is not a swap for me as I’ve always used bar soap. But I thought I’d mention it because body wash is such a scam. Not only does it come in plastic, but it costs more. Long live the humble bar soap! I also just want to shout out Dr. Bronner’s, which is what I use.

Of course, there are other low waste swaps to make. This is just a start. What are some eco-friendlier swaps you’ve tried?

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Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you shop through my links, I may earn a commission. I received the Blueland toilet bowl cleaner for free from the brand.