Skip to content

Everyday swaps

Laundry powder in cardboard or refill instead of liquid bottles

Laundry liquid bottles are among the heaviest plastic items in the home; powder in cardboard, refill stations or sheets avoid them entirely.

Swap out
Laundry liquid in plastic bottles
Swap in
Powder in cardboard or refill
Impact
2 / 5
Cost
1 / 3
Effort
1 / 3
Grams of plastic avoided per person per year
400
Watch out for
Laundry sheets and pods often use PVA film, which dissolves in the wash but is still a type of plastic; powder in cardboard is the cleanest option.

Switch to powder in a cardboard box, a refill station, or laundry sheets in paper. Dose by the instructions rather than the cap.

A laundry liquid bottle weighs around 100 g of HDPE; four to five a year is about 400 g avoided. Refill and reuse systems cut packaging waste to almost nothing when the container is kept in use, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation finds returnable and refillable systems cut greenhouse gas (GHG) and water 35 to 70 percent at scale.

The catch: some laundry sheets and pods are PVA polymer; powder in cardboard is the simplest plastic-free option.

Page updated 24 September 2026. How we check sources