I purchased the items in these pictures myself and these opinions are my own.
Grove Co. is a company that ships healthier home and beauty options to your door. It sells a lot of the “green” names you recognize or hear about in zero waste articles and blogs. The company seems defaulted to the subscription option at the beginning, but it’s easy to modify your subscription or cancel. I started with a VIP subscription, moved to regular subscription and now I just order as needed. Their options are great for you to try new greener products and to order on a schedule that works for you. They have a great email reminder system and offer a recommendation service based on your past purchases or survey responses.
The only issue I have with Grove is that they have a motto, “100% plastic-free by 2025,” yet continue to sell a lot of plastic options. To be fair to them, a lot of the products we’re familiar with from the green brands come in plastic, with difficult to recycle parts like pumps, and only come in only standard sizes. Grove brand is doing a great job to create non-plastic alternatives, concentrate alternatives and take-back programs.
Grove has a good track record for sustainability and offers a recycling program for their pouches and its third-party partners! I’m not a fan of pouches in general because you cannot easily recycle them; however I am aware that they use less material, cost less, are lighter and easier to ship, and therefore should be making less of a carbon impact. If Grove takes them back, creating a cradle-to-grave closed-loop cycle, that’s great and you can feel good working with this company.
So I do recommend you try them out. They’re a great way to sample a lot of styles of products and brands. Let’s go over what I’ve experienced so far.
Packaging
I have no complaints on packaging. They use paper tape, write an encouraging little message on all the boxes, use paper to pad the area if they can’t pad it with your purchases, and the outer box is always the smallest possible for your order without squishing things inside. Most of the inside packaging on the products is easily recyclable as well.
All the products have a How2Recycle label on them! It makes it so easy to deal with the packaging, which again is good to begin with. Naked (package-free) options would be amazing and even greener, but with shipping and the amount of glass and/or liquids most of the orders are, it makes sense that they’re at least using recycled cardboard and paper.
Products I love
Since I know what I’m looking for and what I like that’s what I ordered though I did accept all the freebies with the first box. I find the Grove brand items work really well and are usually easily recyclable in curbside recycling.
These Grove foaming hand and dish soap refills come in aluminum cans instead of plastic tubs and are easily recyclable. Aluminum is a great material for refills as aluminum can be recycled infinitely vs. plastic which can only be recycled 1-2 times. The Grove glass bottles and silicone sleeves are really lovely, minimal and super sturdy. Remember that everything needs to be toddler-proof in my house. We prefer liquid soaps at the kitchen sink but have bar soap at all the bathroom sinks. You don’t have to order the glass bottles but I needed new liquid soap containers anyway so I did.
I am going to write a separate post on bars but we’ve been working hard to get plastic out of our shower routine so I’m continuing my quest for my favorite shampoo bar that does not contain fragrance. This is a good one for sure and has a subtle pleasant scent from the natural ingredients.
I love 100% recycled items especially if you have to landfill something. These 12 gallon drawstring trash bags are great, they’re sturdy, not to thick or thin, draw well, and have no scent. I’ve noticed that oddly enough when I use them I fill one up and no more, despite doing the same routine when I have one 30 gallon trash bag going. It really is true that even unconsciously, “the volume of garbage that Americans produce expands to fill the number [or size] of receptacles that are available to put it in.” Rathje, William and Cullen Murphy. Rubbish! HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 1992
Grove’s cleaner concentrates come in little glass bottles with aluminum lids. You add water to make the full solution. The Grove glass bottles with product-specific-color-coordinated silicone sleeves are separate if you want, you can just buy the concentrate if you have enough bottles already, or just the bottle if you have the concentrate and change your mind and want the bottle or a new bottle. These concentrates work very well, better than my homemade supplies and way better than my Blueland trial.
I admit I got sick of my homemade masks that turned out to be cotton-poly blends and itchy. Most local masks I’ve found either didn’t fit or where polyester (sheds microfibers) so I ordered the family bundle of organic cotton face masks. The adult fits me perfectly (I am petite but have a large head) and the kids size, which is for 7-12 years old, fits my 3.5 year old’s large head perfectly. The adult is too small for my 6’3″ husband. So how that works out for you I cannot say but they adjust, contour well and are GOTS certified organic cotton.
I owe you all a post on toilet paper. Grove makes it’s own bamboo toilet paper and no joke this is the softest toilet paper I have ever felt. If you craft they have the sturdiest, smoothest toilet paper rolls for craft projects. I highly recommend you try a box of this if you are trying out other items from Grove. There is no tape at all, just a paper box that has fold tabs. The rolls are loose in the box, so no outer wrap to deal with. It’s lovely!
Grove Co. – “Homemade” Soy Candle – Vanilla, Brown Sugar, and Sandalwood (7 OZ)
I love this candle. We are super sensitive to smell and have only been able to tolerate unscented or Trader Joe’s candles so I’m super happy to have this new option. See the How2Recycle label easily found on the box’s bottom.
Not Happy
Plastics
Grove Co. – Walnut Scrubber Sponge (Free*) I received this free with my first big subscription order. It is a step up on the traditional yellow and green sponges in that it is a cleaning sponge made from plant and recycled materials, but because the white part is still plastic, I can’t recycle or compost the sponge so I’ll stick with my 100% coir/coconut fiber scrubbers.
Mrs. Meyer’s anything. As I’ve mentioned before here, my family is very sensitive to fragrance, and everything is scented. It also is all single-use plastic that has pumps and spray parts that have to be specially processed to recycle at a recycling facility or in a TerraCycle All-In-One box. So no thank you, I donated that gift to a refugee family.
Scent – Deal Breakers
Mrs. Meyer’s anything. See above.
Otherwise the subtle scent that results from the oils and ingredients used for the Grove brand products have been fine for my scent-sensitive family.
So bottom line, and I’m not an affiliate, is that I do recommend you check out Grove Co. In addition to their in-house more sustainable product line, they also sell Seventh Generation, Stasher, U-Konserve, Bee’s Wrap, and If You Care to name a few of my favorite brands.
Grove has a great Plastic-Free Guide to get you started with switches to transition to a more zero waste lifestyle. We’ve covered a lot of these ideas on this blog, but a comprehensive list with links is always helpful.
Treehugger shared a link for Grove’s Free Beyond Plastic set which could be a great continuation or start on your spring cleaning and April’s Earth Month.
Let me know if you try Grove Co., what you think, and what your favorite product or idea is from them.