Bulk-buying of micro-bead free handwash

Colin61

Hi,


trying to reduce our usage of plastic containers and also products containing micro-beads.


I recognise that soaps are "better" than handwashes but for some applications prefer to use handwashes.


Does anyone have any recommendations for handwash which is free of micro-beads and , preferably, can be purchased in bulk?

Dozey_Dormouse88

Have you tried Dr Bronners Castile Soap (which is a concentrate)?

I am going to try this this weekend to refill my empty plastic hand wash containers. I agree, kids prefer hand soap as a liquid as the bar soap just gets dropped and slides around everywhere.

I have seen lots of posts about this on Pinterest (I can't post links!) that say that this soap is highly concentrated and can be diluted down. You can buy it online or in health food shops. You dilute a couple of tablespoons in water and add essential oils (such as lemon and tea tree) to make it smell great and as extra anti bacterial agents. If using a foaming handwash container, that's it. But if you want a thicker gel like carex style hand wash, you can emulsify it with a tiny bit of concentrated salt water (20g of salt dissolved in 80mL of water) You only need a tiny drop of this solution (about 2ml or 1/4 tsp) and mix it in well and it thickens up nicely, and continues to thicken on standing. I have yet to try this though, doing it this weekend! It probably works out cheaper too as the bottle of Castile soap I bought is like 150mL for £6, I expect that will refill about 10 hand soap containers by this method. It states you can use it for 18 different purposes too, like body wash, laundry detergent etc. We'll see how that works out! It does come in a single use plastic bottle, but I figure this will save at least 10 plastic bottles going to recycling or landfill.

Dave_Fowler

Colin61 wrote: »

Hi,


trying to reduce our usage of plastic containers and also products containing micro-beads.


I recognise that soaps are "better" than handwashes but for some applications prefer to use handwashes.


Does anyone have any recommendations for handwash which is free of micro-beads and , preferably, can be purchased in bulk?

It is my understanding that the use of micro-beads in any product has been banned in the UK since 2018 so no hand-wash products bought in the UK should have micro-beads.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/world-leading-microbeads-ban-comes-into-force

Dave F