http://www.care2.com/greenliving/byob-of-shampoo.html
BYOB (of Shampoo)
Ah, the joys of traveling. And more importantly, the excitement of a brand-spanking-new hotel room. (What can I say? I have a bizarre fascination with hotels.) Used to be, the first thing I always did after checking out the view and jumping on the bed was go into the bathroom and see what kinds of toiletries they had. Tiny bottles of lotion and shampoo, and soaps in miniature all mine for the taking! So cute! It would practically make me swoon.
Now, after having stayed in enough hotel rooms that the bloom is off the rose, my reaction to those tiny bottles has become one of horror. When I think of my naivete, I am more than a little embarrassed. I have always considered myself an environmentalist, a lover of the Earth. I mean, talk about obvious! Just look at one of those teeny-tiny bottles, the amount of plastic it would have taken to make it and the manufacturing, and jeez! All just for one use? So wasteful!
If I lined up every tiny bottle of shampoo and conditioner and lotion I have ever used, well, let’s just say it would take a while to line up all those bottles. I could beat myself up for my folly, but I choose to move forward. (If you’d like to berate me, feel free to do so in the comment section below.) Resolved to do better, I assembled a travel kit from the collection of small bottles already taking up space on my bathroom shelves, and I use it faithfully. Just think, if everyone did this, the hotels would stop putting the tiny bottles in the rooms and then the companies would have to stop manufacturing them.
Bonus: I can control what kind of shampoo I am using. Those tiny bottles are too small for labels that give you a list of ingredients, so who knows what chemical horrors are in them. I bring my own, so I know exactly what is going in my hair and onto my skin.
I know those mini bottles of shampoo and conditioner are convenient, but when you consider how much plastic and processing it takes to make those tiny bottles, putting some of your shampoo from home into a little refillable bottle doesn’t seem like such a hassle after all.
Saving the world one tiny shampoo bottle at a time.
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7 comments
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why is this inappropriate?
Great post. I just did a bunch of research on this. Good post this makes me feel a lot better to carry all these little stuff with me when I am on tour.
r4 dsi
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I too used to love those little soaps and precious little bottles. It finally dawned on me that there was a lot of money tied up in the packaging -- to look luxurious or attractive -- and probably not so much on ingredients. In any case, as has already been pointed out, you don't know what is in the products. I'm betting non-green and non-healthy and cheap. I've found Dr. Bronner's soap to be a good product that works on hair, body, washing clothes, and even teeth, yes teeth, for travel. So I definitely BYOB.
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Always take my own from home, have been doing this for years. Actually I take anything that I can from home with me it makes me miss home just a little bit less.
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Years ago, the class of chemicals known collectively as laureths were praised as gentle cleansers but, more recently, they have been revealed as dilute industrial floor cleaners with a totally non-green profile. One of the revelations is that they do not clean well but clog pores.
I quit using shampoos with laureths as soon as I learned about them. At age 61, my scalp -- generally shampooed daily since my preteen years -- finally stopped breaking out. The laureths were indeed causing problems for my scalp.
Another reason to BYOB.
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Most motels. hotels now use refillable dispensers
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My husband loves these little bottles. I have learned to take only my 'pure' and tried and true brand and I refill travel sized 3 ounce bottles of all my goodies. I am hoping to convert my husband to greener ways and often hide the little offenders in a drawer. Some of them are recyclable...so there is hope.
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