Your options for washing your clothes no longer start and end with the big-name brands on the shelf at the grocery store. Eco-friendly laundry detergent brands have arrived and they're ready to green up your laundry process.

As we become more eco-conscious and aware of the impact we have on the earth, it’s important to find products we use in our daily lives that offset unnecessary waste. From reusable lunch baggies to toilet paper made from bamboo trees to sustainable toothpaste bites, there are countless ways to lessen your carbon footprint in your everyday life.

And in this article, we’re going to show you how easy it is to make your laundry greener (like, as in more environmentally friendly, not, like, actually greener), and share our reviews of the top five green laundry detergents in the game. 

4 Easy Steps to Greener Laundry

1. Get an eco-friendly laundry detergent

Whether we like it or not (and we usually don’t) laundry plays a large role in our lives. But it also plays a large role on our planet too. And no matter how often you put off doing your laundry, when you do it with chemically-filled detergents, you’re subject to harming both yourself and the environment around you.

These detergents we’ve relied on for so long are filled with toxic chemicals that typically flow through our pipes and right into our natural water streams, polluting our rivers and lakes and large bodies of water, as well as the creatures which inhabit them. By making the switch to eco-friendly laundry detergent, you rid yourself of the chemicals, and you can help save the planet. 

Plus, by buying detergents that come in plastic-free compostable bottles or boxes that can be recycled and reused, you’re also saving countless plastic bottles from hitting landfills.

2. Look for ingredients

For years, we’ve looked at laundry detergent ingredients that will keep our skin from breaking out while also keeping our clothes soft and odor-free. And that alone can take literal loads of time to figure out which detergents work for you. While you’re considering what detergents work and which ones don’t, you need to take into account one more person. No, not your children or partner. But rather Mother Earth. 

Detergents can contain several chemical compounds that have negative environmental effects [1]. Phosphate-containing laundry or dish detergents can react adversely when they finally reach the water table. The nitrogen in these detergents reacts with phosphorus in the water, creating nutrients that stimulate the growth of algae in freshwater. Over time, this slowly depletes the oxygen in a body of water, ruining the ecosystem as a whole. 

Instead, you want to find detergents that are free of chemical toxins and leave as little an impact on the earth as possible. 

3. Watch out for chemicals

Before you run to the laundry room to throw out the detergent you’re currently using, we’ve listed the most harmful chemicals you should look out for that are often found in laundry detergents. That way when you inevitably do throw out your current detergents, laundry pods, and dryer sheets (more on that later) to buy one of the five best eco-friendly laundry detergents that we’ll share with you in this article, you’ll know what toxic chemicals to avoid. A great rule of thumb is if you can’t pronounce it, chances are, it’s not good for neither you nor the environment. 

In fact, many of the chemicals within popular laundry detergents cannot be filtered through water treatment plants, forcing them into rivers, lakes, and other large bodies of water. This is extremely harmful to aquatic life.

Listed are the chemicals to avoid when choosing your next detergent [2]:

• Sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate/sodium lauryl ether sulfate. This chemical agent was originally developed as a garage floor degreaser. 

• Phosphates. This chemical agent has fatal consequences for native marine animal species.

• Formaldehyde. This toxic chemical featured in laundry detergent is also used to preserve dead bodies.

• Chlorine bleach. Bleach may be good for whitening materials, but it also acts as a skin and lung irritant.

• Ammonium sulfate. This is an oral, skin, and respiratory toxin.

• Dioxane. This chemical, when in liquid form, can spontaneously combust, and also causes skin, eye, and lung inflammation.

• Optical or UV brighteners. This stain treater is extremely toxic to aquatic life. 

• Ammonium quaternary sanitizers. This cleaning product is corrosive, causing eye, skin, and lung damage.

• Dichlorobenzene. This mouthful of a chemical has an immediate, highly toxic effect on aquatic life that can continue poisoning the watershed for years to come.

4. Skip the dryer when you can (or at least skip dryer sheets)

It’s not just the detergents that are bad for your clothes, and subsequently the environment. The dryer and dryer sheets are potentially problematic at best and extremely harmful at worst to both.

The dryer does more than put unnecessary wear and tear into your clothing. It is an energy vampire. In many households, the dryer is the third-most energy-hungry appliance, after the refrigerator and washer. Air-drying your clothes can reduce the average household’s carbon footprint by a whopping 2,400 pounds a year [3].

And while fabric softeners sound like a good idea, fabric softeners and dryer sheets are just as filled with toxic chemicals that are bad for you, your clothes, and the environment. 

The amount of fragrance used in dryer sheets can be significant, making up for up to 10% of the products’ contents. These chemicals rub off the dryer sheet and coat your clothing in a slimy layer that has the effect of making your clothes feel softer [4].

More than that, dryer sheets are single-use products that contribute to environmental waste. These sheets add nothing but toxic chemicals to your clothing. Instead, we suggest trying chemical-free dryer balls, which can last up to 10,000 loads.

The 5 Best Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergents

Dropps

Dropps, $24

Dropps is the original laundry pod that was created long before the Tide Pod (and even longer before people started eating Tide Pods as dares — please, let’s never try that again). Founded in 2005 with the idea to create a biodegradable, low-sudsing, detergent that would treat natural fibers right, and keep fabrics looking better, longer.

Inside the dissolvable pods (that come in compostable packaging) are plant-based ingredients that help remove stains and odors, while keeping your clothes’ colors intact. The detergent is dye-free, phosphate-free, optical brightener-free, and has never been tested on animals.

Tru Earth

Tru Earth, $20

Laundry detergent isn’t strictly liquid anymore. At least not with True Earth detergent sheets. Yeah, you heard that right. Detergent sheets. Tru Earth created a sustainable laundry detergent sheet that can dissolve easily into both hot and cold water. Each strip is pre-measured with detergent that is both paraben- and phosphate-free.

Where dryer sheets can only be used once before being thrown away, these detergent sheets dissolve into the washer, leaving nothing behind. These strips, along with the box they come in, are all compostable ways to make the world a better place.

Rockin’ Green

Rockin’ Green, $20

Whether you’re someone who fills their washer to the brim or lives alone and only washes for one, the Rockin’ Green detergent is flexible and right for you. Where most detergents are in pre-measured portions (are they called portions? I call them portions), Rockin’ Green gives you the power in how much detergent goes into your next load. Put a lot — or a little — of this plant-based, gentle, biodegradable powder into your washer, without having to worry about phosphates, parabens, optical brighteners, or artificial fragrances. Rockin’ Green is 100% vegan and environmentally conscious.

Kind Laundry

Kind Laundry, $18

The hardest part about switching laundry detergents is wondering if the newer, better-for-the-environment, eco-friendly products do the work like the detergents you’ve been using for years. But with Kind Laundry, you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. Kind Laundry created detergent strips that are made with zero-waste packaging and biodegradable ingredients, that contain no harsh chemicals, but still manage to harness the strong cleaning power you need. Kind Laundry’s unscented detergent sheets are our top pick for those with sensitive skin.

Morei

Morei, $21

The more Morei you use, the more likely you are to save the planet. These detergent strips keep 300 million plastic jugs out of landfills per year. With simple plant ingredients like coconut oil and bio-enzymatic (a cleaning ingredient that uses non-pathogenic, good bacteria to digest wastes, soils, stains, and malodors), Morei effectively washes away the odor and dirt in your laundry, without creating the carbon footprint that’s stepping directly on our planet.