Raising the Bar

The trouble with bottled soap is that it comes in bottles, many of which have pumps that can't be recycled.

I can't remember when bottled soap took over my life, but within the last year, I have started making the move back to bar soap. Most of the plastic bottles can be recycled, but making and recycling them still requires resources and energy. Then, there are those pumps and bottle caps that can't be recycled. For these reasons, I began looking for ways to keep bottled soaps out of my life.

To work on eliminating the bottles, I turned to the W.S. Badger Company. I have been using Badger sunscreen and lip balm for two years, and I really like them, so when the company reintroduced its line of soaps, I thought about buying some. However, I waited until my hand soap bottle neared its end and then asked Badger if its body soaps could be used as hand soaps. The representative said the soap made a good hand soap as long as it was placed on a dish that drained (when the soap sits in water it loses its firmness).

I bought the unscented Badger soap and began using it two months ago. It cleans hands well and is gentler on them than the bottled soap I had been using. Also, although it is officially unscented, it does have a bit of that bar soap smell. When I caught a little of that scent, it reminded me how much I liked the smell of bar soap, and by doing so, it brought back some memories.

So far, the experiment with bar soap has been a success. In the future, I may choose to replace my body wash with Badger soap as well.

You can check out the Badger Web site by clicking here. Many of the company's products are certified organic, and Badger does not test its products on animals.