Bar Soap’s Better Than Liquid Soap, Here’s Why.

I love bar soap. They come in so many wonderful scents and shapes, keeping us clean and fresh smelling at a lower environmental cost.
We throw out more than 552 million shampoo bottles every year. That’s a lot of plastic that eventually ends up in the landfill, even if all of them are recycled. Switching to bar soaps prevents that!

Before I begin listing the advantages of bar soaps over liquid soaps, let’s dispel some possible deterrence to bar soap.

Bar Soap Misunderstandings

Don’t worry about germs.

If you’re worried about bacteria on bar soaps, remember that our smartphones are dirtier than the typical toilet seat but we touch our phones (and then our faces) all the time!

Besides, bacteria on bar soap washes off every time you use it, so there’s no need to worry about it contaminating your skin. If you’re not assured, rinse the soap under running water and lather it up before you use it. That would remove germs from the soap.

Keep it away from water to let it air dry when not in use. After all, it’s not bar soap that bacteria love, it’s moisture!

Which is why I would suggest you skip the wash cloth/loofah/sponge – the combination of trapped skin cells and moisture makes them a good breeding ground for bacteria and mold.

It’s convenient, perhaps more convenient than liquid soap.

Simply lather it up in your hands and apply the lather all over your body, or wet the soap and apply it directly over your body! It’s not that different from using liquid soap.

What’s more, when you use up a bar of soap, it’s just gone. There’s no need to rinse out any container for recycling.

Let’s look at the advantages of the humble bar soap.

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#1: It’s easy to find affordable bar soap with good quality.

It’s easy to find bar soaps made with quality and sustainable ingredients that are still affordable. Bar soaps are very accessible to everyone of different socioeconomic groups. Here are two great and affordable examples.

For 3.5oz bars, Sappo Hill’s soaps have a good value and are made with great ingredients.

Ingredients: Non-GMO Food Grade Oils of RSPO-Certified Sustainable Palm, and Coconut, Water, Sodium Hydroxide*, Glycerine, Fragrance Blend with Natural Plant Extracts and Essential Oils, Mineral Pigment
*Used to make true soap; none remains in fully saponified and superfatted soap bar Taken from the Sappo Hill website.

Another brand I love is Dr Bronner’s Pure-Castile Bar. This type is mild enough for babies to use!

INGREDIENTS: Organic Coconut Oil*, Organic Palm Oil*, Sodium Hydroxide**, Water, Organic Olive Oil*, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Sea Salt, Citric Acid, Tocopherol
*CERTIFIED FAIR TRADE INGREDIENTS
**None remains after saponifying oils into soap & glycerin. Taken from Dr Bronner’s website.

They also have a bunch of lovely scents like lavender or peppermint.

Both brands of bar soaps use sustainable palm oil, are paraben-free, phthalate-free, SLS-free, detergent-free, biodegradable, cruelty-free and vegan. They are also packaged with recycled paper.

If you were to buy a body wash of similar quality and sustainability, it’ll be a lot more expensive.

Etsy is a great place to source for good bar soaps too. There seem to be bar soaps for every price point and every need. You’ll be spoiled for choice if you use bar soaps!

#2. No plastic bottles required.

The packaging (production and supply) energy footprint for liquid soap is 19 times that of bar soap!

Being a dry bar of soap, all it needs for packaging is paper. Whereas liquid soap requires a bottle, and it’s often a plastic bottle.

Even though shampoo and body wash bottles are often recyclable, keep in mind that recycling is resource-intensive and causes pollution too. Not using plastic is always better if you can help it.

Since plastic can only be recycled 2 to 3 times before their structure weakens too much for further processing, we all know where plastic bottles ultimately ends up in. Yes, the landfill or the incineration plant, or worse, the ocean!

#3. Bar soaps are lighter and last longer = a much lower overall carbon footprint.

It takes 9 times more energy to transport liquid soap than bar soap.

Owing to the plastic bottle and water content, liquid soaps are a lot bigger and heavier than bar soaps, so it takes more trips and fuel to transport liquid soaps.

What’s more, a bar of soap typically lasts longer than a bottle of liquid soap.

A consumer study discovered that people use 6 times more liquid soap than bar soap to wash their hands.

That translates to an even lower carbon footprint per use for bar soaps!

For the same amount of bar soap and liquid soap in weight, the bar soap will last 6 times longer. This is the reason the manufacturers moved towards selling liquid soaps in the first place. It allows them to sell 6 times more products.

#4. Lesser chemicals are required to make bar soap – better for the environment.

Since bar soaps don’t contain water and are more stable – they don’t even require preservatives, they can be made with just 4 ingredients: base oil, lye (sodium hydroxide)*, water and scent (optional).
*Lye reacts with oil to produce soap in a process called saponification. No lye remains in the finished soap bar.

There are body washes and shampoos made with good ingredients too, but they tend to be expensive.

If you look at the ingredients in typical liquid soaps and shampoos available at supermarkets, chances are, they’re a pretty long list. They may include, among others:

• Surfactants: Cleanses and produces foam (e.g. sodium lauryl sulfate)
• Emulsifying agents and stabilizers: To prevent separation of components and maintain consistency (e.g. cocamidopropyl betaine)
• Preservatives: Since the formulation contains water, preservatives prevent bacteria and mold from growing (e.g. parabens)
• Plasticizers: as a solvent or softener (e.g. pthalates)
• Fragrances

This is why the energy used to produce and supply raw materials for liquid soap is 5 times that of bar soap!

Apart from the energy footprint, there’s also the waste footprint to consider.

It’s easy to forget that all that soap we wash down the drain enters the wastewater treatment plant and discharges into rivers and the oceans. The wastewater treatment plants can’t catch every chemical we put into the water.

Can you imagine how much chemicals enter the ocean just from our shampoo and body washes alone?

The chemicals are harmless in small amounts, but what happens when a little chemical washes into the rivers and seas from every wastewater treatment plant?

That said, bar soaps can also contain a lot of chemicals – always check.

To choose a soap that doesn’t pollute the water as much, I go for simple and recognizable ingredients – like those in Sappo Hill and Dr Bronner’s soaps.

Usually, it’ll contain olive, coconut or palm oil or a mixture, sodium hydroxide, essential oils, tocopherol (vitamin E), coloring, glycerin, and etc. If there are a few ingredients I can’t recognize, I consult google! Otherwise, I simply ditch them and choose something else.

#5. Lesser water required to wash them off.

This is a personal observation. I feel that because it doesn’t leave that filmy residue on my skin, it’s easier to wash off bar soap than liquid soap.

It may not look like much at each washing, but between the huge population and the number of times we wash our hands or take a shower, the water consumption adds up.

#6. Great for air-travel.

If you’re a light packer, you’d probably appreciate the ability to bring bar soaps in your carry-on without worrying about the liquids restriction.

If you do have a checked-in luggage, it’s also great to not have to worry about your bar soap spilling!

#7. Great way to support small businesses.

Most brands of body washes, shampoos and conditioners are owned by one of a few large and powerful fast-moving consumer goods corporations like Unilever and Proctor & Gamble (P&G).

On the other hand, there are tonnes of passionate soap makers that operate small businesses with great ethics. Why not show them some love?

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Sometimes, solutions lie in the simplest places. And that’s the case for reducing plastic waste from hand soap, body wash and shampoos. If you have access to a bulk store that allows you to buy liquid soaps with your own bottles, that’s great! If not, bar soaps are great and really convenient.

What’s more, you can save a lot of money by switching to reasonably priced bar soaps.

Be good to the environment, your skin, and your pocket. Switch to a bar soap today!

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