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11Feb
Smol Review. Small changes big differences?

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I’m always looking to reduce my plastic footprint and live a more sustainable lifestyle. Smol have us sorted for all of our dishwasher and laundry needs whilst being totally plastic free, and we have also more recently tried out their eco-friendly surface cleaner. Here is our Smol Review!

Why choose Smol

If it’s one thing that comes in plastic packaging that could easily be swapped its dishwasher and laundry tabs and, put simply, Smol have it sorted. A simple subscription platform, with tabs posted through the letter box means you never run out and never see a plastic tub again.

With one child that always gets messy and another who’s 2 months old and loves to throw up, its handy knowing we never run out and use a formula that works every time.

It is one step further on our journey to reduce our eco-impact.

Their claims

Smol claim to make high performance, sustainable swaps effortless, accessible and affordable. They say they cut carbon by 35% whilst keeping prices fair. Big bold claims.

So how does it work?

How does Smol work?

I’ll use laundry tabs as an example, but its a similar process for any of their products.

Click this link, tap ‘get started’ and choose the first product to switch, so for this example we picked laundry.

Take a free trial and then tell them:

  1. What type of capsule you need? Bio or non-bio
  2. How many capsules you need in a wash (some cases require two)
  3. How often you run a wash

And they will then send them at the frequency matching your use. Consequently, you never run out.

But what happens if you do run out?

It’s inevitable your dishwasher or laundry use changes from time to time so sometimes you do need more. You can pop back into your account and adjust your usage or click ‘send now’ to be popped in the next post collection.

How environmentally friendly is Smol?

I originally chose Smol as they are 100% plastic free (for dishwasher and laundry). AlI in sent in a clever cardboard child-proof case too.

A child proof case that albeit is clever it’s very hard to master mind you.

Smol review

However, it turns out they do a lot more. The packaging is fully recyclable and compostable, they use vegetable based inks so there’s no nasties there and their cardboard is from sustainable managed sources (Forest Stewardship Council approved). They are also cruelty free having never tested on animals and save chemicals, water, animal fat and carbon.

How do they stack up in terms of cost?

Probably the most important question aside ‘do they work?’ is will they cost me more? It’s disappointing that most eco-friendly swaps are not that economical.

To compare, let’s look at the maths for the laundry capsules. 24 laundry capsules come in at £5.30 or 22.1p per wash.

Top leading brands, Ariel, Fairy and Persil rank in at 23.5p, 28.2p and 21.7p (according to Tesco.com on 05 Jan 2023 for similar quantities). So against the top brands they do rank well.

For the more money savvy though, own brand and buying in bulk can save money? However, that comes with the mountain of capsules for bulk buying, the less acceptable performance for own brand and lack of totally plastic free alternative for any shop bought alternative.

Do they work?

If you need any evidence of how well they work I’ll tell you this. I have kids.

Kids who come back from nursery caked in dinner, love jumping in muddy puddles and generally making a total mess.

Kids who like a fresh bowl with every snack and like all children get pasta sauce caked all over the plate and cutlery resulting in many many dishwasher runs.

If they didn’t work, I’d be looking for an alternative.

Surface cleaner

The surface cleaner is a new addition which I thought I’d try the trial to give my thoughts.

This comes as a reusable plastic bottle which you can keep and reuse forever (It’s seems well built but I imagine the odd replacement spray nozzle will have to be ordered resulting in a little plastic waste over time).

It has a simple process. Fill to a the bottom of the coloured grip. Pop in the tablet. Wait to dissolve and then top up with water again. Very simple. (This is a big improvement on others such as Splosh (see our Splosh Review here) as they require a vigorous work out style mixing.

It couldn’t be easier. The tablet quickly dissolves and I appreciate avoiding the shaking. It smells pleasant and cleans perfectly, tackling our kitchen with ease.

It’s so good we’ve subscribed ?

Verdict and those all important stars

Smol have an easy to use subscription platform, handy email updates to check your stock and the simple system to push it back, order more and never ran out process.

They are moderately expensive being only comparable to top brands, however are fully support our eco-conscious lifestyle being 100% plastic free, recyclable and compostable. You never run out and they are effective for our messy family.

For us its worth every penny.

Grab a free trial by clicking here.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Thanks for reading,

Daddy, Munchkin and Sprout

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13Apr
Splosh Review

It’s time for ‘another way to reduce plastic product review from me with a Splosh Review.

I have already swapped out my general cleaner/ window cleaner/ toy cleaner/ floor cleaner for Koh (which you can find the review here), and my dishwasher tab and washing tab for award winning provider Smol. These are all changes we have made as part of our more sustainable lifestyle.

These changes still left the problem of buying soap bottles, washing up liquid and toilet cleaner. Whilst these are all fully recyclable by combining general curbside recycling and Terracycle, I thought there could be a better alternative, and for that I turned to Splosh.

Splosh seem to have solved the plastic problem in a different way. Rather than producing and supplying endless plastic bottles they send you one (or as many as you need, like soap and toilet cleaner as you may want one per bathroom). That one bottle lasts and with that, you’ve saved 95% of plastic waste. They do hand soap, washing up liquid, laundry detergent, surface cleaner…. and more.

But you want to save 100% plastic?

Well you can. You can then get refills to resupply the original bottles. These refills are concentrated, so supply a number of refills before they are empty. You can then, save up the refill pouches and send them back for free. Simple, and then its 100% plastic free with an endless reuse and recycle system. The fact the refills are concentrated too also saves on the environmental costs related to shipping, so that’s another win, oh and they fit through the letterbox!

Looking for other eco products. We have reviewed Koh – The universal cleaning solution ➡️

For this review we tried the grapefruit washing up liquid, rose and lotus blossom and blackberry soap and mint and eucalyptus toilet cleaner.

Both the soaps are foaming and moisturising leaving your hands feeling fresh, the toilet cleaner smells lovely and fresh and the washing up liquid is tough and smells summery and fresh. Overall, in terms of scent and effectiveness, the Splosh products work exactly as the standard alternatives (like Fairy washing up liquid, and Carex soap).

But Isn’t refilling a pain?

It’s simple. For the soap, just fill to the line on each bottle with hot water, top up to the neck with the refill solution and shake. in this example, one refill refills the soap bottle 6 times, although others are simply refill and use.

It must be expensive then?

Compared to leading hand soap providers, this does clock a little higher at 8p per 100 ml more. However, if you subscribe you save 10% and with big refills you can save even more. As the website says, ‘With each refill, you get that flicker of satisfaction you’re doing something good for the planet’ which makes up for the tiny price increase.

Overall, its a keeper for me and I thoroughly recommend it.

The ratings

If you’re interested in Splosh, I have a referral code you can use below. To use it visit Splosh.com.

Referral code: IPQMARYYX6

Daddy reviewed, Munchkin approved.

Thanks for reading,
14Jun
Washing up Plastic Free

I recently decided it was time to change our washing up to plastic free.

We previously used scourers and blue cloths, which firstly contain plastic which breaks down to microparticles with every use, but are also lovely breeding grounds for bacteria.

I opted for a combination of a Silisponge and a Joseph Joesph Clean-tech Scrubber.

Silisponge (yellow) and Joseph Joseph Clean-tech scrubber (Blue)

These work perfect in combination. The Silisponge is flexible so it’s perfect for things like the edges of glasses, and those tight corners of your toddlers animal shaped plates and bowls. The Joesph Joesph however is tough and perfect for tough baked on food. We then also clean the sink using Koh, a multiple use antibacterial single-use plastic free cleaning solution. (I will review Koh in a future post).

The Joesph Joesph sponge also has two edges with different rigidity for tougher or lighter cleans, and also a tough end for scrapping extra tough bits.

Both are silicone, so hardwearing, dishwasher safe to sterilise and most importantly, plastic free.

This is our latest plastic free switch.

Thanks for reading,
6Apr
Our Latest Plastic Free Promises

It has been a little while since I’ve made a plastic post, and while we may be all distracted by COVID-19, the environment is still suffering under a ton of plastic.

Last time I told you about our first swap outs. We removed cling film and freezer bags for reusable tubs, shopping bags for tote or bag for life alternatives and the ability to recycle more with Terracycle.

Since then we’ve made some more plastic free promises.

Using reusable fruit and veg bags

Every supermarket now sells reusuable fruit and veg bags near (you guessed it!), the fruit and veg. This means we can pick loose again without using any plastic.

plastic free promises
Reusable fruit and veg bag from Lidl

Plastic free ‘shower gel’ and shampoo products from Kitenest

I intended on purchasing some of these and then kindly received some as a Christmas present (yay!). Their activated charcoal soap is a perfect replacement for shower gel leaving your skin smooth and smelling like the spa. I’ve also got a lemon shampoo bar but i’ve yet to try it out. Ill let you know when I have. Kitenest also do bamboo care products, reusable face wipes, plastic free dry shampoo and more. Kitenest.co.uk

Replacing antibacterial wipes

Although this was forced to fall back to wipes due to the COVID madness, we had removed the use of antibacterial wipes for using an antibacterial spray and a cloth. This keeps the efficacy of the solution but low plastic use.

Biodegradable baby wipes

Since having a little munchkin, we have been keen to reduce the potentially huge plastic impact of such a tiny human. Wipes were next on the list, and thanks to cheap home-band wipes on the high street at Boots this was easy as pie.

Recycling bread bags

Another bug bear of mine, I love bread and a lot of bread comes in bags. Luckily these are collected at supermarkets in the bag recycling bins. Along with bread bags are many other plastics including cereal liners, frozen food bags and bubble wrap. Read more here.

Recycling baby food pouches (Ella’s kitchen only)

We’ve recently also switched baby foods to allow for more recycling. Terracycle and Ella’s kitchen created Ellacycle. This programme takes Ella’s baby food pouches and snack wrappers. Read about Ellacycle here. Now thats one less thing to worry about when changing nappies, running after a toddler who’s a very fast crawler and hoping you can still get whole milk during self-isolation…

As i said in my first plastic post. It’s not about changing everything, and it’s not about doing it overnight. It’s about changing bit by bit overtime. It all adds up and makes a difference.

Thanks for reading,

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2Oct
The Plastic Problem and our Promises

Unless you’ve been living under a rock it’s likely been unavoidable to know about the plastic problem on this planet.

To tackle our plastic footprint, reducing single use plastics are the swaps we started with and there have been some easy switches I’ve made. (Though there are plenty more to make too).

It didn’t happen overnight. It has been a slow process of reducing bits one by one for us.

We started in the kitchen. Cling film was a big bug bear of mine so that went first. Swiftly followed were food and freezer bags and both of these were easily swapped for reusable tubs.

We then looked to the next big pile up of plastic: shopping bags. We began recycle our shopping bags and replace them with more permanent tote style bags. Most supermarkets have collection bins and Ocado even pay you to take them (with an order). For fruit and veg we started to take it loose too. There are plenty of alternate plastic-free fruit and veg bags out there if you really need to use something.

Ocado’s bag recycle bonus from their FAQ

I then made an extra effort to recycle more and correctly. It’s amazing when you look at it what you can and can’t. Checking with your local authority is the place for this one.

Terracycle recycling began this year. A colleague at work set up collection for our company.

The Terrecycle scheme takes near to everything you can’t traditionally recycle. For example: crisps packets (grr), toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, chocolate wrappers, sweet wrappers…….the list goes on. And on and on and on. You just need to find a collector which you can do on the website, deliver to them and they send then on to Terracycle. (See my Terracycle post here).

My ultra glamorous (temporary as I’ll improve it) Terracycle collection set up

From those reductions I’d only be less than quarter-filling my bin destined for landfill, rather than the previous three quarters.

But then the Munchkin arrived and so did disposable nappies. You only had to look in the bin every fortnight to see the effect with the bin back up to half full.

We had to try something different! We changed to Mio miosolo nappies when Munchkin was around 5 and a half months and then just use disposables for the nights as this is where reusables seem to struggle. It’s another load of washing so a little extra effort but that is a small sacrifice for the 25 nappies not ending up in landfill each week. Especially given those 25 extra nappies would outlive our little Munchkin by 100 years or more.

A happy Munchkin in a Mio miosolo nappy ?

Future swaps I’m looking at are trying reusable baby wipes and biodegradable nappies for the nights (which are swapped and you can read about here). Though hopefully when Munchkin sleeps through the night the washable nappies may last.

It’s not about changing everything, and it’s not about doing it overnight. It’s about changing bit by bit overtime. It all adds up and makes a difference.

Thanks for reading,

Daddy and Munchkin