Important: This is the 4th last article of 2025. I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back January 19th, 2026 with the first article of the new year!
Being on a zero waste journey has probably made you realize that, unfortunately, you use a lot more single-use products than you once originally thought. I know from personal experience how much pressure this can introduce to your life. Once you know, you can’t un-know, and the guilt can start eating you alive.
Please, resist the urge to immediately purge yourself of all things single-use. If they still work/are perfectly usable, throwing them out before using them is actually doing more harm than good.
The point of being zero waste is not to never have or use single-use products or to be perfect – the point is to do your best. That means using products – of any kind – until they actually need replacing.
Take wooden chopsticks for example – you could use them once and then throw them away, or, you could wash and re-use them until they break/start to splinter. Even though they were technically designed to be single-use, that doesn’t mean that’s the only way you have to use them.
Today, I’m going to go through 8 common single-use household products and tell you whether or not they could be re-used, some re-usable options to buy once they do need replacing – or if you need a specific re-usable option for them at all.
Toothbrushes
Toothbrushes aren’t exactly single use, but with the recommendation that you should replace them every 3-4 months, the average person is throwing away at least 3 every year. And, as with most things, that adds up over the course of a lifetime.
Obviously, this item is one you can’t live without, so what are you supposed to do?
Luckily, toothbrushes are one of the easiest items to convert to zero waste! There are plenty of zero waste options all over the market – look for ones that are made out of silicone where you just have to replace the heads, instead of the whole brush, or ones made out of bamboo instead of plastic – or, you can even try to extend the life of the plastic toothbrush you already have by cleaning it!
There are a few different ways to do this, but the ones I’ve seen/read about the most are: boil the brush for 2-3 minutes, use a vinegar + baking soda paste and massage it into the bristles or soak the bristles/head in hydrogen peroxide for about 15 minutes, then rinse it off with cool water and allow it to completely air dry before using. These methods of cleaning can be used to remove any potential germs/bacteria that stayed stuck in the bristles. (You know, like the ones you just finished taking out of your mouth)
Another cool thing about these cleaning methods, is that they’ll work on most of the zero waste options, as well!
If you choose to do the boiling method, just make sure you keep an eye on the brush, especially if you do it with a plastic brush. We wouldn’t want it to melt!
Floss
This product is admittedly debatable about whether or not it’s strictly needed.
The priority should obviously be your health, so if you have a doctor/dentist who tells you, specifically that you need to use floss, use it!
If however, you have some wiggle room – you can consider getting a toothbrush that has a little attachment that could replace the single-use floss, or you may be able to just… skip flossing all together.
And I think here is a great time to remind everyone that I am not a doctor. I am not qualified to give any sort of medical advice. I’m just a person sharing general life advice, from my own experience in an attempt to help others. I don’t know you/your health situation. I cannot make specific recommendations to individuals and I do not pretend to.
You are deciding to follow any/all advice on my website of your own volition, and accept the consequences of doing so.
On that note, if you do need to continue using floss, it’s not a total loss! You can always upcycle the container the floss comes in to hold: small buttons, beads, sewing needles, thread, earbud storage, snacks, or even decorate it and make it a holiday decoration!
Q-Tips
This is another debatable item of necessity – there are tons of articles out there telling people they should not be using these to clean your ears – but we all know that isn’t stopping people from using them.
Not to mention, ear-cleaning isn’t the only use Q-Tips can provide. I’ve personally used them to clean my laptop keyboard, nail polish removal, make-up removal, earring cleaning and more!
Specifically for ear cleaning, there’s these things called ‘ear pickers’ you can get. They usually look like some kind of small device that has a small scoop on one end, and then you use it – along with an app on your phone – to carefully scoop the earwax out of your ear.
Because these go directly into your ear – and can often go deeper than a Q-Tip would – you need to be extremely careful if you choose to use them, and there is a bit of a learning curve. But, once you get the hang of it, it’s actually pretty simple. I use one sometimes, and it’s both gross and fascinating to see all the earwax that comes out.
There are also silicone Q-Tips available for purchase, you use them exactly the same as you would a ‘regular’ Q-Tip, and then instead of tossing it, you just clean it with some soap and water!
Or, you could also just stop buying Q-Tips.
Especially if you use them for cleaning, you could just swap these out for wash clothes, rags, etc.
Pads/Tampons
I’ve talked a bit about replacing pads/tampons in my reusable pad article, but if the idea of re-using a pad squicks you out, there’s also period underwear, or menstrual cups available as a reusable option.
Period underwear is essentially underwear they’ve sewn reusable pads into that you just toss in the washing machine/dryer to clean, or a menstrual cup is usually a silicone cup that you put up inside you, and then (carefully) take out to empty into a sink, and then you boil it at the end of your period to clean/disinfect it.
I will say, before I switched to reusable pads, I thought it would be a lot grosser than it turned out to be. I honestly didn’t think it would be an option I’d be able to stick with, but it’s been… I think 5 years now (wow) and I’ve never looked back!
Toilet Paper
Stay with me, here!
As far as straight up reusable alternatives, there is this stuff called ‘family cloth’ that is scraps of old clothes – t-shirts, sweaters, sweat pants, etc. – that you cut into squares, and then use to wipe. Once the cloth is dirty, you throw it in a basket that you keep next to your toilet, and then you wash them by tossing them into the washer.
There’s also bidets, which are little water jet things you attach to your toilet to wash yourself, and then you’d pat dry with toilet paper. Bidets are widely used in lots of areas of the world, and the use of water to clean yourself would help cut down on your over-all toilet paper use.
If you think that still sounds a little too outside of ‘normal’ for you, there’s also bamboo toilet paper!
You’d use it exactly the same way you would ‘normal’ toilet paper (wipe and toss in the toilet), but since it’s made out of bamboo, it’s better for the environment! Bamboo is a type of grass, so it grows back a lot faster than trees, and the quality is very similar, if not better than tree-made toilet paper. (I have a review of bamboo toilet paper, if you want a more in-depth analysis)
Cotton Pads
Similar to Q-Tips, the reusable options for these would depend on what you use them for.
In most cases, wash clothes would be the best alternative.
All of the reusable cotton pads I’ve seen have been some sort of cotton, bamboo or microfiber/terry cloth – which means they’re made out of the same thing as a wash cloth, they’re just cut into small circles. You could definitely DIY reusable cotton pads if you had some spare fabric and a sewing machine or knew even a basic hand stitch.
One con of using reusable cotton pads – if you use them for make-up or nail polish removal, especially – would be staining or smell retention. Even with proper cleaning, there’s a chance they might remain stained with make-up or the scent of your nail polish remover might get trapped in the fabric. If however, this is something you don’t care about – like a stained plastic container, as long as you know it’s clean – then this would be a non-issue.
Sponges and Loofahs
I put these two items together because all the reusable options I know for one could very easily work for the other.
Wash cloths, sea sponges, Swedish cloths, silicone scrubbers, bamboo scrubbing brushes, etc.
Or, you could ditch the scrubbing product all together and just use your hands! Granted, this method might require a little more changing to your routine – no more letting a casserole dish sit without water and dish soap in it – but unless you/your dishes are getting caked in mud every single day, this alt would definitely work, at least in a pinch.
Tea Bags
I’m not a historian, but I’m pretty sure loose-leaf tea has been a thing pretty much since tea was invented.
You don’t even need a bag for certain teas – you just scoop the mixture directly into the water/mug!
That said, those kinds of teas can be hard to find, depending on where you are, or, sometimes have higher prices due to the cost of shipping, or even just because they’re a trend to buy nowadays.
Not to worry though, because there are also tons of metal tea steepers/infusers available all over the place! I’ve even seen some mesh bags that can be used as reusable teabags!
Before you go out and buy one of these options though, have you ever tried also just reusing the teabag you already have? Depending on how long you steep the bag the first time, there is still flavour in there and it’s perfectly good for one, two, or even three more uses!
I know someone who likes to drink ‘tea’ by steeping the teabag in the water for basically 1 second. Putting the kettle down after you fill up the mug before fishing the teabag out is almost too long of a steep for her.
When she comes over, instead of using 2 bags, I just take the one out of her mug and use it for my own. (Depending on the flavour)
Obviously, the more times you do this, the weaker the tea will be each time, but it’s still an option to keep in mind.
And there we have it!
All it takes is a little bit of creative thinking and routine finessing to make room for reusables into your life.
Like the article? Check out more about zero waste here!