I wanted to do a little cost+ comparison of three laundry detergents that save the planet. With four guys and 2 gals in our house and everyone doing their own laundry, we use quite a bit of detergent on a weekly basis. On hand, I have TruEarth strips and MelaPower concentrate. Of interest to me is the new-to-me contender, Earth Breeze. There’s a solid review of these three and others by USA Today. https://reviewed.usatoday.com/home-outdoors/best-right-now/best-eco-friendly-laundry-detergents
Their review doesn’t cover cost, so there is the nitty gritty. MelaPower is a liquid so concentrated that a 32 oz. bottle does 96 loads of laundry. That’s space saving, less water weight shipped, and a choice of four fresh scents–and it works. Personally, we like liquids at our house. Is that just comfort? The big draw back is you have to be a member of Melaleuca, AND you have to buy 35 points worth of products every month. It’s complicated, has great products that are way less likely to cause cancer, is earth friendly, and…ends up being fairly pricey each month. Still, the laundry detergent double pack makes each load 18 cents (before shipping).
TruEarth and Earth Breeze are eco-strip laundry detergents. That’s right, there is no water weight at all, and they’re packaged in biodegradable paper or cardboard packaging. When I was working the tornado relief center, laundry detergent was one of the number one products needed that we ran out of on a regular basis. Volunteers carried thousands of those heavy, plastic containers. I ziplocked up a bunch of TruEarth strips to hand out which were almost always just as well received. Light weight, good cleaning, earth friendly. What about cost?
You get your best rate by subscribing for these laundry strips. Earth Breeze does a 60 load package for $12, coming in at 20 cents per load, while TruEarth does a 64 load package ($25.90) for 40 cents a load or the least expensive is 31 cents per load for an annual box of 365 strips at $119 when you subscribe. Both of these offer free shipping.
The laundry strips can be had at some local Walmart, but that will cost you a bit more. The $12 Earth Breeze package lists $14.99 and TruEarth lists at a whopping $39.95. Go figure.
Now my question is: how do I get the kids to use laundry strips?
Kristin King Author 