Sponsor: BerryPlus
| September 25, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Review, Twitter Party |
Tonight is the End of the Summer Green Bash, so it’s time to introduce you to our final sponsor, BerryPlus. BerryPlus is a eco-friendly laundry soap made from soap nuts. The packaging is unlike any other laundry soap I have seen. It comes in a little pack that is small enough to fit in your purse, which makes it great for college students and people living in apartments. The soap itself comes in tiny recyclable #5 plastic tubes. See below for a pictures of the packaging.
The soap can be used in all washers, even high efficiency washers. It is a great choice for front loaders as it doesn’t leave a film like most soaps and won’t promote mold growth. The soap is also made in the US and due to the lightweight packaging the shipping carbon footprint is lower than most soaps.
I have used soap nuts for my laundry for over a year now. It works great and is a great environmental option. I have been buying the dried berries and making my own liquid. This works well for me but there are several reasons why others have told me it won’t work for them, for one to use it in cold water you have to make the liquid and the liquid has to be kept in the fridge and used within a couple of weeks to keep it from molding. This wouldn’t work well for college students which often don’t have stoves to make the liquid, you could boil the water in a microwave but this can still be hard and if using a mini-fridge most won’t want to use up the space with laundry soap. For people that don’t want to deal with making soap nut soap or have reasons for not being able to, BerryPlus can be the answer for them being able to still use soap nuts.
While the packaging is not plastic free, there is much less plastic than most soap and they are recyclable. They can be recycled in your cities recycling if they accept #5, if not Whole Foods accepts #5 plastic, and if you don’t have Whole Foods near by you can send them to Preserve: Gimme 5.
Overall this is a great product with an innovative design. I highly recommend people try this and it would also be great for a gift basket for a new college student. It’s available online from one of the other End of the Summer Green Bash sponsors, Reuseit.
Tonight, at the End of the Summer Green Bash you can win a gift pack from BerryPlus! Be sure to RSVP for the party and join us on Twitter at 8 p.m. ET to have a chance to win this product and many other great prizes.
*Disclaimer: I was not paid for this post, this is my honest opinion. I did receive a sample for the review. I’m also paid to host the upcoming Twitter party. Also the Reuseit links are affiliate links and I earn a small percent if you order from those links. This doesn’t effect my views on the products.
Photo Credits: Reuseit and BerryPlus
Lisa, I’ve been making my own soap nuts liquid for a couple of months now and love it. But you are right that it isn’t for everyone. Although I dislike plastic, in our world, sometimes it is a necessity and I’m glad this product is minimally packaged. Also, thanks for the info and link on recycling #5 plastic.