Hey y'all I wanted to make this post in case y'all didn't know about this and wanted to try it out - DETERGENT STRIPS! Basically made to lower/eliminate plastic waste from laundry
The brand I use and that's most well known is Tru-Earth. I can't say much about other brands but I wanted to give y'all my experience with this + info from reviews
PROS
Comes in cardboard packaging - way thinner, lighter and easier to deliver than super heavy detergent bottles. Also more sustainable since the packaging doesn't have plastic
Works well for almost all laundry! I use it ALL THE TIME, it's basically 95% replaced any other liquid detergent for me
While slightly more expensive than average detergent per order, it's not that much more expensive and definitely more affordable in bulk for a lot of people
Super easy to use
Paraben free, hypo-allergenic as per their website. I'm not 1000% sure on this one but I have pretty sensitive skin and strong allergies and I've been using it on my bedsheets and clothes and have had no issues
Smells nice when I hold it, BUT
CONS
Even the scented ones basically don't have a smell at all when you smell the clothes. The only scent seems to be when you're holding them in your hand. You'll have to invest in separate scent additions for your clothes, which I usually achieve with wool balls + scented oils in the dryer
I sometimes have to use more than the recommended single strip, but only because I have huge laundry loads (and usually it's only like, 1 1/2 to 2 strips, nothing major)
If you need a much stronger wash and stain removal, according to some reviews this doesn't do very well to remove major stains. It does, however, do well with regular washings, so for most types of regular laundry it's great. I've not run into this issue since for major stains I try to get ahead of the wash with some home remedy stain removal THEN put it in the laundry, but I wanted to bring this point up.
Some of the major issues in reviews seems to be some lacking customer service rather than the product itself, so you might run into some customer service issues (though I personally never have)
Someone suggested that you'd have to still use regular strong liquid detergent every once in a while, but I think that's still a major upgrade from using too many bottles that will end up in a landfill anyway - and there are methods to make up for this shortfall that are more sustainable.
I know there are probably other ways that are way more sustainable, but this was a method I found that's easy to use, easy to get delivered for me since it's about the size of a normal letter, and cheaper in bulk, and I basically just use it all the time.
My laundry is basically this + wool dryer balls with scented oils so they end up well washed and smelling great and it feels pretty good not to have to deal with the huge plastic bottles from detergent.
As of writing, apart from some of the customer service reviews I've seen no major issues with the company, and it has almost 20000 reviews on Amazon with a majority being positive, 75% being 5 star, so there's that to consider.
