Are sustainable products cost effective? Part 2: Cleaning Products
- lizziedunavin
- Jun 19, 2020
- 2 min read
If you read one of my previous posts Refill is the New Recycle, you already know all about Blueland cleaning products. If you haven't, you should really check it out! But I'll give you a short description just in case. Blueland cleaning products come in refillable glass bottles when you order your first kit. After that you order refill packs containing 3, 6, or 9 tablets you simply add to water to create your cleaning solution. Here is a demo of this stuff working it's magic!
I decided to focus this post specifically on Blueland's products because that was the route I chose to go. There are plenty more sustainable cleaning companies. In fact, it's quite overwhelming when you start digging into it. I'll drop a few names of some that I have found at the end of this blog.
The reason I wanted to use Blueland in particular is the price model. Up front you are paying $40 for a cleaning essentials kit that includes the four products above: multi-surface, bathroom, glass + mirror, and hand soap. That averages out to $10 per product. Pretty pricey compared to the $3.50 Windex I can pick up at the supermarket. After researching for my last post I found that most cleaning products that we currently use, Windex, Kaboom, and Clorox, were roughly $3.50 per bottle. So I wanted to see just how long you would need to use Blueland cleaning products to make it cost effective.
I graphed it out so anyone could read it and understand. On the lefthand side we have the total price after each refill. With Blueland cleaning products you can buy a pack of nine refills. So I graphed the progression given the first set of cleaning tablets included in your kit and your nine pack of refills. At first, name brand cleaning products are clearly less expensive. The difference of 6.50 per bottle is a little outrageous. But keep watching, as you buy bottle after bottle, the price difference lowers significantly. After your third refill you have averaged $14.00 for that Clorox Clean Up and $14.68 for Blueland Multi-Surface cleaner. After your fourth refill, Blueland takes the lead as the cheapest option at $16.24 compared to the roughly $17.50 you've spent on Windex.
Once you have run through all ten tablets of cleaning solution, you would have spent $25.60 for ten bottles of cleaning solution. On average after buying ten bottles of name brand cleaner, you have spent close to $38.50.
Now there are many reasons people choose not to use sustainable products. But in this case, "it costs too much" is no excuse. It may seem like a grand investment compared to the $4 here or there, but in the end a sustainable product can be not only better for the world, but better for your bank account as well.
More Sustainable Companies with Cleaning Products:
*Disclaimer: I have not done in-depth research into these companies and the cost effectiveness compared to well-known brands.*
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