I am a big fan of making my home more eco-friendly. In fact, while living in China, I wrote a long article about all the things that I did (back then) to decrease my carbon footprint at home. If you have loads of time, you can read my article by clicking here.
I am sure you will learn something. 🙂
PS! I would recommend you to jump straight to this article. It’s a list of the very best glass soap dispensers that can be found on Amazon. I am a big fan of glass, but do understand those who buy plastic soap dispensers as well.
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Table of Contents
- But how do you know where you can improve?
- 1. Will make your kids wash their hands
- 2. They are environmentally friendly
- 3. You can save some real money
- 4. Some of them do look adorable
- 5. They DO NOT host a lot of bacteria [this myth should be dead…]
But how do you know where you can improve?
Well, you should sit down and make a list of all the things you do every day. Start with the big things. Drive a car, eat red meat for dinner, take showers that are more than 20 minutes long, and so on.
These things have a huge impact.
After that, you can start to write down the small things that you do every day. Take notice on what products you use when you brush your teeth. That might tempt you to buy a bamboo toothbrush.
So…why did I buy refillable hand soap dispensers?
When I was standing in front of the sink washing my hands the other day, I looked down on the soap dispenser and thought: damn! I am actually buying three of these plastic containers every month. There HAS to be a more eco-friendly way to wash my hands? And yup. There is. After that, I did quite some research the benefits of buying refillable hand soap dispensers.
This is what I found.
1. Will make your kids wash their hands
I don`t have kids myself. However, I had a friend of mine and his kids visiting my apartment. And believe me: they loved it!
….and why would they be more eager to wash their hands with the soap dispenser that I bought?
Well, I guess that answer will be clear when you see benefit number 4! 🙂
2. They are environmentally friendly
The environmental benefit is quite clear: you do not purchase a new plastic container every month. However, there might be one more benefit to it. Some “Walmart soap dispensers” gives you 5 litres of soap after one pump.
If you wonder why plastic pollution is a big problem, I guess you might want to see this short Youtube clip:
I know…it`s hard to believe that these numbers are true. But they are.
3. You can save some real money
99 % of people care more about their finances than the environment. So if you tell people that buying a product actually can save them some money, you will see a sudden spark in interest.
What I do personally is buying a huge box of cheap soap that I refill every time on of the dispensers is empty. I calculated that my price per liter soap is about 90 % (!!!!) cheaper compared to buying one time dispensers.
4. Some of them do look adorable
Now, this is the time to show you what I bought. In the end, I ended up buying two different products (one in each bathroom). I know that the word “adorable” is not very commonly used among men, but …. look at these products:
You can buy these products at Amazon by clicking here (panda) or here (snail).
I would argue that buying a cute soap dispenser makes your bathroom sink area look better. Do not only see this is a an eco-friendly investment. It can even be considered as being art.
5. They DO NOT host a lot of bacteria [this myth should be dead…]
Most people read the headlines of different newspapers and believe in everything they read. That can be very dangerous.
In 2011, a lot of newspapers wrote that “your refillable hand soap dispenser can be a heaven for bacterias!”. The source was a report published by Zapka Et Al (2011). There was only one problem – they did not do their research on private-owned soap dispensers. Instead, they had gone around in different public toilet facilities all across the US to gather evidence. As you can read from their own conclusion, they never meant to warn anyone against buying dispensers to put in private bathroom/kitchens:
“Bulk-soap-refillable dispensers are prone to extrinsic bacterial contamination, and recent studies demonstrated that approximately one in four dispensers in public restrooms are contaminated. “
You can read the full report by clicking here. PS! External website.
How can you prevent bacterias from “growing” in your own soap dispenser?
By cleaning it every time you add more soap to it. And by “cleaning”, I mean that you should buy some antibacterial liquid. Cleaning a soap dispenser with soap is not very efficient.
