The holiday season is in full swing, but that’s no reason to neglect our monthly plastic reduction! The most sustainable option is always to use what you have, but once that runs out, it’s time to find an eco-friendly replacement. This month we are excited to have found a laundry detergent replacement that meets all of our requirements. It’s a strong statement, but we really feel like we’ve found the best sustainable laundry detergent!

Meliora: The Best Sustainable Laundry Detergent

Meliora means “better” in Latin, but we’d take it a step further and say that it’s the best! We’ve been using soap nuts for a while and they’re a great option for lightly soiled laundry, but for smelly exercise clothing or filthy rags, we really wanted to find a stronger detergent. Here are a few reasons why we think Meliora makes the best sustainable laundry detergent:

• Natural Ingredients: Meliora is incredibly transparent about the ingredients in their laundry detergents and home cleaning products. They list the ingredients clearly for each product and provide extra detail for those who want to look into it further. All are safe, natural, and not tested on animals. If you’d like to read a review of Meliora ingredients, I recommend this post by I Read Labels for You.
• Sustainable Packaging: The founders of Meliora have created very eco-friendly packaging. No plastic at all! The laundry detergent comes in a metal tin and the refills come in paper bags. All recyclable and compostable materials. They even offer a bulk laundry detergent option, which actually does come in a huge plastic bucket, but they have you return it when it’s empty so that it can be refilled. Great example of a circular economy!
• No Synthetic Fragrance: This is sort of implied by “natural ingredients” but it can be so hard to find products without mysterious fragrances, that I wanted to emphasize this point. No synthetic fragrance in these products! They also come with a completely unscented option, which is what we chose. My parents use the scented laundry detergent though and it’s quite nice.

Pro tip: the laundry detergent does not come with a scoop, so plan ahead and save a little scooper! We saved the scoop from our previous laundry detergent and now we reuse it in our Meliora detergent. Perfect way to reduce and reuse!

Plastic Free Laundry

We will continue on our journey toward having a plastic free laundry room, but for now it continues to be a work in progress. Between our soap nuts for lightly soiled laundry (delicates), Meliora laundry detergent for towels, rags, and stinky clothes, and our Meliora stain stick we have the cleaning part well covered!

For the dryer we also have some great plastic free solutions. We use wool dryer balls to help our clothes dry efficiently and reduce static. A few drops of essential oils directly onto the dryer balls is a great, nontoxic way to add a fresh scent as well!

Another bonus tip for making laundry sustainable is to avoid doing laundry during peak energy usage hours. This year we learned that during peak hours California has to utilize “dirty” energy to meet the demand. We try not to run our washer/dryer or dishwasher between 4-9pm. Sometimes we use the “delay start” function on our washer to help us avoid the peak hours while also not falling behind on laundry.

Hurray for sustainable, plastic-free laundry days!

xo, Nicole