Losing the Plastics: Soaps

So to soaps. As we know, shampoos and conditioners and liquid soaps come packaged in plastic bottles. But they are also available in bar form - and you can buy them from people who use fair trade sources to buy their ingredients. Here is what we learned about bar soaps in general:

Most soaps are made by a process called saponification, which uses an alkali called lye that reacts with oil to produce soap. Many commercial bars have the glycerin resulting from this process removed to be put to other uses - unfortunately for us, since glycerin helps our skin stay healthy. So while these soaps may be very good at cleaning the skin, they are drying and tend to leave a residue behind which can be irritating to the skin. Glycerin soaps, to which glycerin has been added or from which it has not been removed, (usually transparent) are kinder to the skin. Syndet bars such as Dove are made from synthetic surfactants, and are said to be the mildest on the skin. Some bars combine synthetic surfactants with other ingredients to try to get the best of both worlds.

Syndet bars sound like a good way to go - except that the surfactants may be created from petroleum products. While this may become less and less the case as petroleum products increase in price, it did make me decide to look around at another alternative - soaps with glycerin that are made from natural oils bought through Fair Trade suppliers. This adds another dimension to the decision - trying to buy from sources who work to make sure those who actually produce the crops we are buying get paid well and fairly for their work. While we were looking around, we found our way by word of mouth to SimplyByAmanda, where we found soaps and body butters handmade from fair trade ingredients. And as another bonus, no plastic packaging. Through SimplyByAmanda we found our way to Grass Roots, where a shampoo and conditioner bar is available. One set of answers to our dilemma...

We also decided to do something about our laundry detergent. Liquid laundry detergent comes in plastic bottles - but powdered detergent does not. On the other hand, powdered detergent needs to be kept dry, something which is not always easy on a boat. So we decided to buy powdered detergent (phosphate free, of course) and transfer it to the plastic bottles we had originally had the liquid detergent in - hopefully, that will be a workable solution. And there are also bars of laundry soap available here or in the islands, so we’ll keep that in mind as we cruise too.

We’ve also decided to avoid those single-use throwaway plastics that are so much a part of life in so many places in the world. Here, we can recycle many of them, and it’s an easy enough decision to pay attention to the packages we buy and make sure that things we purchase are packaged in the kind of plastic which can be recycled. But we will not always be here, and even where it is available recycling uses energy which is becoming increasingly costly, both financially and environmentally. So we also decided to pay attention to buying things which are not packaged in plastic, in some cases not packaged at all.

We’ve started small. Since we began cruising we’ve used our backpacks to transport groceries to and from the boat, so using them without first putting things in plastic bags is not much of a stretch and makes us feel better. Though it does sometimes feel as if we have to beat the cashier to the packing... Happily the Farmer’s Market will be opening soon, and we can join the throngs already using their own bags there, and have good fresh vegetables and fruit beside.

A few small steps down the road, and we are still experimenting and looking around. And thinking about so much more - how to handle our garbage in places where good garbage disposal does not exist (we’d rather not see it come drifting back in from the sea); changing our engine to electric; what fuels to use to cook and heat. We’ll let you know what we’re thinking and planning and how things turn out...