Posted by Kevin Vollquartz
on 25 August 2026
The quickest way to cut plastic at home is to change what you rebuy, starting with the products that run out fastest. Washing-up liquid, sponges, cling film and detergent are repeat purchases, so one decision changes what arrives all year. Below are ten swaps you can start this week. If you only do two, make them the washing-up liquid and the sponges.
Why swap as things run out instead of clearing the cupboards?
Because binning a working product creates waste today and prevents none tomorrow. The plastic already in your cupboard has been made and shipped, so the only plastic you can still avoid is the plastic you have not bought yet. Cleaning and kitchen products are a sensible place to begin, because you buy them again and again and they arrive in packaging every time. Packaging is the biggest single use of the roughly 430 million tonnes of plastic the world makes each year, two thirds of which is only used briefly.
We make plastic-free household products in Denmark, so we have a stake in this. Our view is fairly boring: a swap only counts if you keep doing it, so it has to work at least as well as the thing it replaced.
What are the ten easiest plastic swaps to make?
Six of them are kitchen and laundry rebuys: washing-up liquid, sponges, cling film, detergent, dryer sheets and brushes. The last four change how you buy rather than what. The rebuys come first below, because one decision there holds for months. Two of those last four cost nothing, and the other two mean buying a refill or a spare part instead of the whole thing again.
1. Bottled washing-up liquid to a solid bar
A bar does the same job as a bottle without the bottle. Wet your sponge or cloth, rub it on the bar, wash up as normal. Our solid dish soap bars are concentrated, cut grease, come in plastic-free packaging and smell of mandarin, lime and basil. If you would rather keep a pump on the sink, a refill you top up at home does the same job.
2. Plastic sponges to loofah
Every conventional sponge sheds plastic as it wears down. A University of Bonn team had volunteer households in Germany and North America wash up with three sponge types, weighed the sponges before and after, and backed that with a lab rig. All of them lost material and released microplastic, between roughly 0.68 and 4.21 grams per person per year depending on the type, and the sponges with less plastic in them shed significantly less. The same release makes a point we would rather it had not: 85 to 97 per cent of the environmental impact of washing up by hand comes from the water you use, not the sponge. So run the tap less while you are at it. The shedding is still worth removing, because it is the part that leaves your kitchen and does not come back. Our sponge scourers use loofah plant fibre. Wherever you buy, check the scrubbing surface: plant fibre or stainless steel rather than nylon mesh.
3. Cling film to something that actually seals
Cling film is one of the few kitchen items with nowhere to go. English councils are not required to collect plastic film from households yet, and the government has only said it will require recyclable plastic film to be collected by 31 March 2027. US readers are in much the same position. The Environmental Protection Agency says bags, wraps and film are recyclable but cannot go in your household recycling bin, so they belong at a shop drop-off point instead. Rules are set locally, so check your own list first. Jars and tubs cover most fridge jobs. For the rest, our certified home compostable zip bags have a reusable zipper, are PFAS-free and BPA-free, and go in the compost caddy when they are done.
4. Detergent jugs to tablets
One 12 g laundry tablet replaces a scoop, a cap and eventually a plastic jug. They are pre-measured, work at any temperature, and there is no wrapper to peel off. The formula is hypoallergenic, built on mineral and plant-based ingredients with a dual-enzyme system, and we have written about what enzymes actually do in laundry detergent. Whichever brand you end up with, look for no PVA film to unwrap and a cardboard box rather than a plastic tub.
5. Dryer sheets to dryer balls
A dryer sheet is usually a non-woven synthetic fabric, most often polyester, coated in softener and fragrance. It goes through one cycle and then into the bin, so every load leaves a sheet of plastic behind. Dryer balls do the job mechanically, bouncing around to stop the load packing into a lump, and they stay in the drum from one wash to the next. Ours are made from hemp. Look for a natural fibre that will not shed onto dark clothes, and enough balls to move a full drum around, which means several rather than one. We have set out how the two natural options compare in our comparison of wool and hemp dryer balls.
6. Disposable brushes to a handle you keep
The problem with a nylon washing-up brush is that the whole thing goes in the bin when the bristles flatten. A wooden or bamboo handle with a replaceable head changes the maths: you buy a head, not a brush. Ours use FSC-certified bamboo with sisal bristles, and sit alongside the rest of our household range. Before you buy a handle, check the refill heads are on sale now rather than promised for later.
7. Buy loose fruit and veg where the shop lets you
Loose produce removes packaging and lets you buy the number of apples you will actually eat. WRAP's research on household food waste and plastic packaging found that if industry adopted its three recommendations, which include selling common fresh items loose and dropping their best-before dates, the equivalent of 14 million shopping baskets of food waste and more than a thousand lorry loads of plastic could be avoided.
8. Keep the jars you already have
The cheapest food storage in your kitchen is the jam jar in the recycling. Wash it, soak the label off, use it for grains or the half onion you would otherwise wrap. The middling sizes, roughly 300 ml to 750 ml, hold a portion without taking a whole shelf. Check the lid before you commit: if the liner is cracked or rusted the jar will not seal, and a neck wide enough to get a spoon into beats a pretty shape.
9. Find one refill for whatever you buy most
Refills work best on the product you get through fastest, usually hand soap or washing-up liquid, because that is where the saved packaging adds up. Judge a refill on whether it ships without its water: a concentrate or a solid gets you the same washes without posting diluted product across the country. Then look at the container you decant into: a wide neck saves a spill on the worktop. If there is a refill shop near you, start with one dry good.
10. Repair or replace the part, not the product
Most plastic tools fail in one place. A brush loses its head. A mop pad wears through long before the handle does, and a pump gums up while the bottle is still fine. Brush heads and pump dispensers are the two parts most often sold on their own, so search for those before you rebuy the whole thing. Before you buy any tool, check the brand publishes spares for it: a company that sells none has told you how long it expects the thing to last.
Which swaps should you do first?
Start with whatever you buy most often, because that is where one decision does the most work. If you only do two, do the dish soap bar and the sponges: they are the fastest rebuys in most kitchens. The other three below can wait until those have bedded in.
| Swap | What it replaces | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Solid dish soap bar | Bottled washing-up liquid | Concentrated, packaged in paper or card, no plastic pump |
| Loofah sponge or steel scourer | Synthetic sponge and nylon scourer | Plant fibre or metal scrubbing surface, not nylon mesh |
| Compostable zip bags | Cling film and single-use freezer bags | A named home compost certification, plus a zip you can reuse |
| Laundry tablets | Plastic detergent jugs and pods | Pre-measured, no PVA film to unwrap, cardboard packaging |
| Brush with replaceable heads | Whole-brush disposables | Refill heads sold separately and still in stock next year |
What should you do with the plastic you already own?
Use it until it stops working. Old takeaway tubs are food storage, and a plastic colander that still drains still drains. The exception worth acting on early is anything that abrades in use, such as a disintegrating sponge or a scouring pad shedding fibres into the drain.
If you would rather work through the house in order, our room-by-room guide to plastic-free cleaning covers the same ground, kitchen first. For the reasoning behind each category, we go through the best alternatives to everyday household products.
