These Reusable Personal Care Products Can Make Your Morning Routine Less Wasteful

Modern life is full of waste. Even if you've ditched one-use Ziplocs and plastic straws, started bringing your reusable coffee cup to cafes, and given up your toilet paper in favor of a bidet, your morning routine probably still creates a lot of trash. Nearly all personal care products come in plastic containers: toothpaste tubes, deodorant sticks, mouthwash bottles, and more—and most of them are difficult, if not impossible, to recycle.

But a new line of products from the personal care company by Humankind aims to make getting ready a lot more environmentally sustainable. The company just released deodorant, mouthwash, and shampoo that use almost no plastic packaging.

Much like the recently released Myro deodorant, by Humankind's B.O.-fighting, eco-friendly formula comes in a reusable tube. While the outer tube is plastic, it's designed to last you forever. Instead of throwing it out and buying a new tube every month, the company sends you a refill of the aluminum-free natural deodorant formula in a cardboard pod that fits neatly inside the hard plastic casing. The company also donates $1 for every reusable container it sells to removing plastic from the ocean.

Deodorant isn't the only waste-producing bathroom product that by Humankind is looking to innovate, though. The company has also released mouthwash tablets—which look like fancy mints—that you can dissolve in a cup of water or chew directly. The effervescent tablets (in mint, spearmint, orange, lemon, and grapefruit flavors) are designed to normalize the pH of your mouth without the burn of alcohol. Your first shipment of the tablets comes in a reusable plastic container, with subsequent refills arriving in eco-friendly paper packaging.

The new product launch also includes a shampoo bar that further eliminates the need for plastic bottles in your bathroom. You use it just like a bar of soap, lathering it in your hand or against your head. It's available in lemongrass, thyme, or lemon lavender scents, and is designed to reduce dryness so that you don’t need conditioner at all.

The refill containers themselves are either made of entirely paper or mostly paper, and all reduce the single-use plastic normally associated with the product by at least 90 percent. (The deodorant refill tube, for instance, has a little plastic cap on it, although most of the tube is cardboard.) All of the packaging materials, meanwhile, are made of compostable fibers like bamboo. They're not only recyclable, but they can be disposed of right in your backyard. According to the company, you can bury the packaging in the ground and it will degrade within 90 days.

All the new products are sold on a subscription basis. A shipment of deodorant costs $15, mouthwash costs $10, and shampoo costs $13. Order them here.