Do you find yourself using wet wipes regularly? Regardless of your needs, they can prove to be pretty helpful – but not, unfortunately, to our environment. It’s a solid reason why more people are looking for sustainable alternatives to wet wipes.
For convenience and to help do your bit for the environment, it makes sense to swap out.
In this guide, I’ve lined up nine of the best sustainable alternatives to wet wipes available to buy in the US right now. These are kinder on the planet – and are just as kind on your skin. What’s more, your bank account is unlikely to complain, too!
What’s the deal with wet wipes, anyway?
Wet wipe usage has never been more rife. The purchase of wet wipes drastically increased during the course of the pandemic, which in turn led to a drastic increase in their disposal.
Many wet wipes – on average – contain material that simply won’t degrade for centuries – and which produce carbon during their manufacture and use.
Sadly, many of us ignore just how important it is to dispose of your wet wipes responsibly, which has led millions upon millions of wet wipes to be flushed down toilets, thrown out with general refuse, and so on.
This leads to blocked sewers and more microplastics in the waters and ground than ever – as you can imagine, the planet simply can’t cope with this pressure.
So, what can we all do to help? Of course, the most obvious solution would be to just stop using wet wipes altogether. However, as you most likely know, that is not necessarily a sustainable option – at least for when it comes to our daily routines and convenience.
Most of us use wet wipes on a daily basis, be it for cleaning, to take on trips, picnics, and of course, to help clean up babies during nappy changing. They are incredibly useful, hypoallergenic, and affordable.
They are also incredibly easy to find in most stores, pharmacies, and of course, online. These are all great benefits – but for the most part, the widely-available wet wipes you see in the tissue aisle aren’t going to be biodegradable.
That means they are likely to persist in the environment for decades to come – if not more. If you’re already cutting back on plastic bottles, why wouldn’t you cut back on wet wipes, too?
Rather than give up using wet wipes altogether, there is an easier way to keep you, your family and the environment happy. The best wet wipes should be made of all-natural ingredients, be fully biodegradable, and ideally, compostable.
Of course, in order for them to be perfectly safe for you to use daily, they should also be hypoallergenic and for parents, safe to use on newborn babies.
Thankfully, there are more and more eco-friendly wet wipe brands emerging – and I’m going to take a look at the best online right now.
The 9 best sustainable wet wipes you can buy right now
When looking for sustainable wet wipes, you should of course search for brands you know and love. However, be willing to read between the lines!
Not all leading makes and brands will provide 100% natural wipes – meaning you’re going to need to search for products that are free from parabens, alcohol and sulfates.
It’s also a good idea to buy wipes (and other products) that are certified as cruelty-free, too. That way, you’re being kind to as much of the planet as possible.
Moving on, here are my picks for the nine best sustainable wet wipes available for purchase through Amazon, with some also available on store shelves. Be sure to read verified customer reviews, too – don’t just take my word for it!
Jackson Reece Kinder by Nature Plant-Based Wipes
Price: Varies
Link: Amazon
If you’re already well-read on companies that focus on sustainability, you may have heard of Jackson Reece – they were actually the first company to produce fully biodegradable wet wipes! Therefore, as you can expect, this brand has a lot to live up to.
These particular wipes are completely plastic-free, are zero-chlorine, and have been made with naturally derived plant ingredients. They are hypoallergenic and vegan friendly, too. They also smell fantastic thanks to extracts of chamomile and aloe vera!
These wipes are pH balanced and aren’t tested on animals – making them a superb choice for anyone keen to protect the world around us.
Pros: Compostable, not tested on animals, aloe vera formula
Cons: Difficult to remove one wipe at a time, may be a little drier than others
Eco by Naty Unscented Baby Wipes
Price: $8.22 for 168 wipes
Link: Amazon
Specifically formulated for sensitive skin, these baby wipes are fully certified as being organic in manufacture, and best of all, they are also completely compostable. You’ll also find that these wipes are free of any unnecessary chemicals, making them the ideal choice for any children or adults with skin complaints.
These wipes are made with plant fibers and water, and are independently certified. Eco by Naty is one of the longest-standing environmentally-focused brands in Europe, and their products are some of the most popular Earth-friendly solutions you’ll find in US stores, too.
These wipes are some of the best-loved among parents and adults with sensitive skin alike – and there’s less guilt when you throw them away, too!
Pros: 100% compostable, very affordable, certified as completely natural
Cons: May clump together when you remove them from a packet
The Honest Company Wipes
Price: $35 for 576 wipes
Link: Amazon
The Honest Company is a go-to source for all kinds of beauty and healthcare products, and their stylish ranges of wet wipes are right up there with some of their most popular picks. In fact, you can buy these wipes in one of four different looks / styles!
The Honest Company has a strong commitment to providing eco-friendly wipes – these wipes in particular are made entirely from plant-based sources, with more than 99% water going into their manufacture. They’re also completely free from alcohol, chlorine or any other hidden nasties.
As an extra bonus, these wipes are never tested on animals, and are both verified and approved to the standards they propose.
Pros: Made entirely from plant source, over 99% water, no chemicals
Cons: Fairly expensive, no indication of composting in the marketing
Goodwipes Flushable & Biodegradable Wipes
Price: $17.49 for 180 wipes
Link: Amazon
Goodwipes’ natural wet wipe range takes things back to basics in a refreshing way. Available in either shea coco or rosewater scents, you can buy these sustainable alternatives in sets of three – great for keeping in your bathroom as well as on the go if your little ones need help while out and about.
These wipes are hypoallergenic, too, providing a balanced pH and a formula that’s free from the nastiest chemicals you’d find in average wet wipes on the market elsewhere. These wipes are also packed full of aloe, lavender, vitamin E, and chamomile – making them the perfect choice for sensitive skin, as well as for wiping baby.
Goodwipes are manufactured as biodegradable, which means they are not only kinder to the planet at landfill, but also when you flush via sewer or septic tank. No matter where you may be, you can set aside that eco-guilt.
Pros: Biodegradable, simple packaging, free from nasty chemicals
Cons: Quite expensive for the number of wipes you get
WaterWipes Biodegradable Original Baby Wipes
Price: Varies
Link: Amazon
WaterWipes is perhaps one of the most recognizable wet wipes brands online right now, and thankfully, they’ve gone the extra mile to produce wipes that won’t harm the environment. In fact, these wipes are manufactured and marketed as ‘the world’s purest baby wipes’. With a 99.9% water content, these certainly seem to be fairly unbeatable on promise.
Buying via Amazon, you can easily purchase packs of 60 in increments of three – meaning if you need to stock up in bulk, you can. These discrete wipes are free from scents and some of the nastiest chemicals out there, as well as unnecessary alcohol and plastics.
These wipes also seem to be some of the most popular online – and I’m with the verified buyers here, they wipe great and really lower some of that eco-guilt.
Pros: Easy to buy in bulk, known brand, highest water content online
Cons: None to really speak of!
Pipette Baby Wipes
Price: Varies
Link: Amazon
Pipette goes for the less-is-more marketing approach and offers packs of 72 baby wipes available for you to purchase in bulk via Amazon. These baby wipes are free from parabens, BPAs, fragrances and sulfates.
The best news, of course, is that they are made with 100% fiber from plant-derived sources, making for a guilt-free purchase. These wipes are also super-soft and kind on skin, and are manufactured cruelty-free.
Pipette is particularly meticulous when it comes to its testing and its market standards, meaning this is a brand you can trust – right down to the packaging.
Pros: Completely plant-derived, highly sensitive, available in bulk
Cons: None to really speak of
Mum & You Wipes
Price: $34 for 12 packs of 56 wipes
Link: Amazon
Mum & You’s popular wipes are completely biodegradable and are made of more than 99% water – as well as plant-based materials. They are cruelty-free, vegan, and use fibers from sustainable forestry, too. They are scentless, hypoallergenic, and come in completely recyclable packaging. Great news all-around!
If you’re a parent, it’s worth noting that this company also makes eco-friendly nappies! Therefore, it makes serious sense to stock up on sustainable resources for all your baby cleaning needs if you can. This is a brand that gets quite a lot of love online, and if you’re willing to pay a little extra, it’s certainly worth saving the planet for.
Pros: Biodegradable, hypoallergenic, recyclable packaging
Cons: Packaging may not be the easiest to use
Eco Boom Baby Wipes
Price: $30 for 540 wipes
Link: Amazon
Free from fragrance and just as moist as the ‘real thing’, Eco Boom’s baby wipes do well online with parents looking for sensitive solutions for their little ones. Thankfully, these wipes are also made from non-woven bamboo to ensure complete sustainability – they are also made with 99.5% water, meaning there’s no hidden chemical nasties keeping them moist.
Bamboo wipes such as these are great for the environment as they use trees that grow back extremely quickly. Eco Boom’s wipes are also designed with a multi-filtration system in place – which to you and me basically means they work harder than most at helping you clean up.
Pros: Made from bamboo, easy to clean with, free from fragrance
Cons: Can be expensive, may not be biodegradable
Cheeky Panda Biodegradable Bamboo Baby Wipes
Price: Varies
Link: Amazon
Soft on skin and easy on the bank balance, Cheeky Panda’s 100% biodegradable wipes offer you the best of all worlds. They’re made from bamboo, which – again – is amazingly sustainable compared to the mainstream materials used for wet wipes. Great for babies, 99% of these wipes are made from water, with the remaining 1% being aloe vera and fruit juice.
There’s even a little bit of antibacterial protection to these wipes, too – thanks to the minor amount of food preservative in the manufacture. Rest easy that you can throw these wipes away and not do any harm to the environment nor your baby’s skin.
Pros: Completely biodegradable, made from bamboo, kind on skin
Cons: None to add!
Are wet wipes bad for the environment?
On the whole, yes – as mentioned earlier in this guide, wet wipes – while being massively convenient for day to day use – are always likely to harm the natural world, no matter what we do with them.
Crucially, many of us may not even realize just what effect traditional wet wipes can have on our environment – so let’s take a look at some of the more concerning issues at stake.
They’re clogging our sewers
Wet wipes are notorious for contributing to the biggest issue that we have in sewers today. You will likely have come across signs in public toilets asking you to not flush your wet wipes, and there is a good reason for it!
Even when they appear to be flushable – and even if a packet tells you they are ‘toilet wipes’ – they’re not fit for toilet disposal. That’s simply because they don’t dissolve or break down in water.
Therefore, when they are flushed away, they simply clog up the waterways. These clogs have to be dealt with frequently further down the line – create monstrous mounts of rubbish known as fatbergs.
This, as you can well imagine, can lead to some serious blockages. It’s messy work to get them unclogged – and given that they are not biodegradable in the main, they’re going to stick around for a long time to come.
They’re adding to the plastic problem
Most wet wipes also contain a lot of plastic – even if they don’t appear to! This makes their arrival in our waterways, then rivers, then oceans, that much bigger of a problem. Microplastics make their way into the water that we drink, and the food that we eat, not to mention causing severe harm to innocent animals and their habitats.
They can’t be recycled
Not that you’d ever want to reuse a dirty wet wipe – but sadly, the majority of wipes you’ll find in the supermarket and online simply aren’t recyclable. Therefore, you don’t really have much of a choice – any traditional wipes you throw away will have to go to the landfill.
Why it’s worth investing in biodegradable wet wipes
If you really want to continue using wet wipes – but don’t want to continue causing harm to the planet where you can help it – then it’s time to look for sustainable, biodegradable and compostable alternatives. Thankfully, there’s a lot of choice out there – as you can see from our list!
By definition, biodegradable wet wipes will eventually break down. They will therefore cause less damage than other wipes on the market. That being said, eventually, all wet wipes will break down, so you have to be careful with what you buy!
It is best to check the ingredients on your sustainable wet wipes packages to ensure that they are made of high quality, natural, truly biodegradable ingredients. The point of these being natural, too, is that when they do decompose, their ingredients will not cause serious damage to the world around us.
What are compostable wet wipes?
While it’s easy to assume that compostable and biodegradable wet wipes do the same thing, there is actually a distinction! A compostable wet wipe will quickly degrade in your compost pile, or a local system (providing you have permission to throw them away there!).
Compostable wet wipes break down quicker than the average thanks to their ingredients. They contain no harmful chemicals or added solutions that would otherwise be impossible to grow in. Compostable wet wipes are great for growing new plants from – meaning you can rest assured that they will break down quickly and cleanly.
In fact, even though nearly any kind of wet wipe can be deemed biodegradable, wet wipes can only be noted compostable if they do in fact compost within 180 days (so, around six months). Obviously, compared to the hundreds of years that it can take for certain other wet wipes to decompose, this is a fraction of the time they could sit idle for!
Can I flush biodegradable wet wipes?
No – regardless of whether or not you use sustainable wet wipes or traditional options, they will all clog up the waterways if you dare to flush them. Therefore, it’s simply not a good idea to cast them into the toilet at all.
Biodegradable and compostable wet wipes will simply degrade better in landfill compared to the average – and what’s more, they don’t contain nasty ingredients (in the main).
Therefore, when flushing, always make sure to use traditional toilet paper or tissue. Blockages can occur regularly both with traditional sewerage systems and with septic tanks, so just because you have waste disposal on-site doesn’t mean you can get away with giving your wet wipes a bath.
Are sustainable wet wipes worth the cost?
Wet wipes are ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Whether you’re a parent or not, it’s handy to just be able to clean up at short notice. During the pandemic, too, wipes have been proven useful to have to hand when it comes to cleaning up on the go. However, they can do serious damage to the world around us.
Yes – sustainable wet wipes will often cost more than the average, simply because it can cost more to manufacture them. However, as you can see from the list above, this never means you have to break the bank.
Cheeky Panda’s biodegradable wipes, for example, are brilliantly affordable and will break down in landfill far quicker than you’d expect the average toilet wipes elsewhere to manage.
What’s more, this is a quick and convenient change that many of us can make with very little hassle. It may take some trial and error to find a brand that you adapt to over time, however, the guilt of sending the same old wet wipes to landfill is out of the picture.
Therefore, if you are looking for new ways to do your part for the planet – and don’t want to invest too much money in the bargain – start swapping your wet wipes for more sustainable alternatives. It really isn’t hard!
Originally posted 2022-09-12 10:44:28.