Seventh Generation Zero Plastic Bathroom Cleaner Powder Review | Zero Waste, Non-toxic Bathroom Cleaner
The Top Line:
Because of potentially cheaper options, we do NOT recommend the Seventh Generation Bathroom Cleaning Powder. We could be wrong though: we think the powder is 4x concentrated (1oz powder = 4oz of spray). If the powder lasts 5x-7x instead, then it competes with Blueland and Public Goods on price. Additionally, we hope with Seventh Generation’s upcoming refills for the bathroom cleaner, the price will come down (and we can keep the canister!).
The powder is made of only 5 non-toxic ingredients, unlike other powders cleaners that contain bleach among other chemicals. Seventh Generation also employed waterless technology so that the powder will not cake.
The Breakdown:
Cost & Products: $6.99 for 10oz canister of Bathroom Cleaner or$46.95 for the Zero Plastic Complete Bundle (saving 20% by the bundle) via the Grove Collaborative Shop
How ‘Clean’ Is This? Really, really clean - it’s Seventh Generation, so here are the list of accolades: non-toxic, no fragrances, no dyes, no plastic, safe for greywater, and safe for septic systems. No animal ingredients and no animal testing, Leaping Bunny Certified, hypoallergenic, sulfate-free. Oh, there are also only 5 ingredients.
Whew… we’re sure we missed some, but Seventh Generation is one of the pioneers in green.
Packaging: Packaging is made of steel, one of the most recyclable and recycled material, according to SG. We verified by our own research here, here, and here. Quote from the Arch Daily:
“When recycled, the consumption of electricity lowers by 80%, causing a lower environmental impact and eliminating completely the extraction of raw materials.”
Purchasing & Shipping: We bought ours from the Grove Collaborative site, which we reviewed extensively here. $49 gets you free shipping, unless you have a VIP account.
For this delivery, many of our tins showed up pretty banged up and dented with a bit of powder inside the box. We reached out to Grove Collaborative and are waiting to hear back (we will update you!). Hopefully this is just new-product hurdles that get worked out over time.
Good to Know: The addition of Seventh Generation Zero Plastic Products may change our advice on the Grove Collaborative site. We still wish the site was better organized.
Extra Info: Seventh Generation is a Certified B-corporation. We love that. You can read about their mission and other values on their website.
FYI: Seventh Generation is working on refills for their canisters, including the Bathroom Powder.
What’s Your Impact? No plastic product coming from a company already really, really well-versed in making products safe, non-toxic, and environmentally friendly in every way possible.
The Experience
What we’ve tried before: We had used powder cleaners with bleach (like Ajax or Comet) and then transitioned to greener cleaners like Seventh Generation sprays, Method, Public Goods, and Blueland. The powdered bleach stuff works like no other and is insanely cheap (we’re not ashamed, we used to love). However, the chemical ingredients are insane: we would never use the product without thick gloves! The Seventh Generation Bathroom Powder Cleaner obviously has no toxic ingredients like these, so we used it to clean our bathroom.
Ignoring the directions on the canister, we used the Seventh Generation Bathroom Powder the way we would have used Ajax or Comet: sprinkle it around a damp surface to be cleaned.
Use a wet sponge to wake up and lather up the powder.
Because the Seventh Gen technology is even more water resistant than other powders we’ve used, it took a bit more water to get the scrub going.
We didn’t leave it on the surface for long, but the ingredients are safe enough to leave on for a bit for tougher cleaning.
The bathroom powder didn’t scratch our sink basin or sink counter.
Versus our Coment/Ajax days, this took a little more elbow grease to work up suds — but that means the powder won’t cake over time.
No. Toxic. Smell. The scent is the standard Seventh Generation bathroom cleaning smell, which you would get with their standard spray bottle.
The Cost
We checked out both regular brands like Clorox and Scrubbing Bubbles as well as ‘greener’ brands like Method, Seven Generation sprays, Common Goods, and Blueland (our reviewed) and Public Goods (our review). We assumed the average household of 4 uses 10-16oz bottles per year.
We think that bathroom powders last at least 4x longer than the liquid sprays, but it is possible that it may be more. About a teaspoon of Seventh Gen’s powder created enough suds to clean the entire sink area of makeup, dirt and soap scum — and we think we used way, way too much since it just kept sudsing!
*We assumed that each ounce of powder cleaner is equivalent to 4 ounces of liquid spray.
Money Report: Well, nothing compares to the cost of Ajax or Comet Bleach powders. Seventh Generation is in the middle of the pack when it comes to price. Of the refills, Public Goods and Blueland continue to be cheaper (unless Seventh Generation makes 5-7x liquid sprays as opposed to 4x in our calculation).
The Good:
We are going to list just a few of the accolades here:
✔ Leaping Bunny Certified: Non-toxic and mineral-based ingredients
✔ Dye-free, fragrance-free, bleach-free
✔ Plastic-free - the container is steel which is one of the most recycled materials in the world
✔ Certified B Corp
✔ Cleaned our bathroom and got rid of soap scum & makeup stains
✔ Non-Scratching powder (unlike Ajax/Comet)
The Bad:
✗ Really expensive - will be equal to price with drugstore brands if it lasts 4x as long (very possible) but may not be able to compete with Blueland, unless one canister lasts as long as 10 bottles
✗ A little extra elbow grease to get bubbles going versus Ajax/Comet due to waterless technology
Our Recommendation:
We love Seventh Generation as a company and love many of their great products. Solely due to price, we do NOT recommend the Bathroom Cleaning Powder. Even though it is made of only 5 ingredients and does not have the toxic chemicals that other powders cleaners have, the price would need to come down OR each canister needs to last 5-7x as long as a spray (versus our math of 4x) before we can recommend it. Additionally, we hope with Seventh Generation’s upcoming refills for the bathroom cleaner, the price will come down (and we can keep the canister!).
We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!
