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‘A cleaner planet starts at home.’ This is the ethos of Blueland, the eco-friendly cleaning product business who claim that since their company was founded in 2019, they’ve helped to eliminate over 1 billion single-use plastic bottles from landfills and oceans.
Plastic products are non-biodegradable yet they are often manufactured for single-use purposes, with disastrous effects on the environment. Their manufacturing contributes heavily to greenhouse gas emissions, and although they are often made as disposable items, they take hundreds of years to break down in a landfill, causing harm to the environment and its animals.
Plastic is an issue which has been highlighted more and more in recent years for the many dangers it presents to the world and its inhabitants, and it’s great to see a company recognising this issue, and even more importantly moving to combat it.
For that reason we were really excited to recently have the opportunity to learn a little bit more about Blueland, and try out some of their best selling refill tablets to see how well they really work!
How Blueland Began
This small team started in 2019 when co-founder Sarah decided she had to take action after becoming a mum and realising just how much single-use plastic has become a part of our lives. This personal goal transformed into a business idea, and she began to focus on producing a few essential bathroom cleaning products to make sustainable cleaning possible.
In 2020, they landed a spot on Shark Tank and their business expanded from there.Â
Blueland’s Mission: Eco-friendly Cleaning Products
Blueland’s aim is to make daily life more eco-friendly. Their main mission is to reduce the amount of single-use plastic that’s used in daily cleaning and home products, but they’ve also worked hard to minimise the amount of water in their products, with all their products coming in powder or tablet form.
This makes them more environmentally friendly and cheaper to ship, with positive effects for the world and their customer base. To top it all off, their shipping has been carbon neutral since 2020!
This natural cleaning brand has many certifications that support their claims of sustainability. They have the Leaping Bunny certification to certify they use no animal testing, they’re B Corp certified, and they’ve been Climate neutral certified since 2020.Â
Why is this good news? These certifications highlight that the company is not only sustainable, but ethical too; they appear genuinely devoted to making sure that their products are designed and produced for the good of the planet, its people, and its animals.
Blueland Products
Blueland’s products are all refillable cleaning essentials for the home, as well as personal care products such as body wash and facial cleanser.
Blueland very kindly sent us over a Tablet Trio Starter Kit for us to try out and give you a full product review. This kit includes dishwasher detergent tablets, laundry detergent tablets, and toilet bowl cleaner tablets, as well as reusable ‘Forever Tins’ for each of these products.
Let’s take a look at how we got on:
Blueland Reviews: First Impressions, From Order to Arrival
Although Blueland is based in America, they now ship internationally to Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Living in the UK, I presumed it’d be a while until I received the products but I was waiting just a little over a week before the starter kit arrived at my door, and I was excited to open it up and take a look inside.
My first impressions were really positive; the design on the box was a detail I hadn’t expected, and the fact that they use water based ink and paper tape means that they don’t forfeit being eco-conscious for these final touches. Not only this, the box is recyclable too!
The Packaging
The tablets come in paper packages that are actually compostable! One of the packages had ripped during shipping, which I think is one downside of using a thinner material for their packaging.
However, since these aren’t designed for long term use anyway, it wasn’t a huge problem and the environmental positives definitely outweighed this issue for myself personally. As you can see the packaging is all very neatly compact as well, so the tablets didn’t move around that much and few had broken.
Sleek and simple, the packaging Blueland uses reflects the clean simplicity of its products, and the fact it’s made with compostable paper is an added bonus! I loved the paper packaging, and the fact that you get ‘forever tins’ to transfer the products into for a more permanent storage method is a great touch.
The ‘Forever Tins’
These are a great form of storage that’s both practical and aesthetically pleasing! I loved the colours, with the co-ordinated two tone pastel shades of each tin and its respective lid looking great.
The best thing about them is that you can store them much easier than traditional cleaning products in the plastic, mismatched bags that can only be used once before they’re thrown away and replaced. Whereas with these tins, when you run out of tablets you simply buy refill packs and carry on using these containers, making them reusable time and time again!
The Starter Set
Now to find out how well their products worked…
The products came with a set of instructions which was really helpful, explaining how to use their products correctly and ensure you get the most out of them! It’s a small pamphlet that includes all of the cleaning products Blueland sells in one place.
I loved the fact that the colours used in these instructions aligned with each product’s respective forever tin. This brand has a really cohesive look that I really like, with all their designs maintaining the same simplistic, very modern aesthetic.
The only thing I will say (and this is just a minor issue) is that there was a copy of these same instructions for all three products in the kit, when one would have sufficed and saved on unnecessary paper and printing.
Dishwasher Starter Set
Initial Impressions
At first I was surprised by how small these tablets are compared to most dishwasher tablets, but this is actually due to the reduced water content. I have to say I was slightly skeptical whether they’d be able to clean a full load of dirty pots!
The lack of a plastic packaging means they’re really easy to use; you just pop them in and set your dishwasher as normal.
Results
Despite being quite small, these dissolvable tablets worked really effectively for a full dishwasher load! The results were great.
The tablets completely broke down in the water, and all tough stains were removed, leaving behind shiny dishes and cutlery, with no residue.Â
How Do Blueland Dishwasher Tablets Compare to Supermarket Brands?
Whilst the results are very similar to your average high street brands, the ingredients differ significantly. Although it may be naive of me, before now I’d never been made aware that the cleaning products in supermarkets include ingredients that are harmful for us and the environment.
Most dishwasher and laundry detergents use polyvinyl alcohol, or PVA as it’s more widely known, which is designed to dissolve (but not disappear) in water. Essentially it’s a synthetic polymer that breaks down in water into microfibres that then enter water systems and are difficult to extract in water treatment.
Laundry Starter Set
Initial Impressions
I really loved the fact that this product offers you a plastic free alternative to traditional washing tablets that isn’t washing powder, which I find takes up a lot of storage space and never lasts long.
The laundry tablets are equally simple to use as the dishwasher tablets. You throw them into the drum of your washing machine, and put them on their usual spin cycle.
Results
I had no problems using the tablets on a variety of different spins, including a shorter cycle for sportswear.
They cleaned all the clothes effectively, and managed to remove small stains from a white jumper too. I didn’t use this on any tough stains, but the company actually sells a separate oxi laundry booster to make sure that they can tackle those harder to remove stains without lifting the colour from your clothes.
How do Blueland Laundry Detergent Tablets Compare to Supermarket Brands?
These little tablets have a big positive impact! They use naturally derived ingredients meaning that they’re non-toxic and aren’t harmful to your skin. This is great not only for the environment but also the consumer, especially those with sensitive skin. The reduced plastic, in the same way as with the dishwasher tablets, reduces the number of microplastics that are entering our water systems, and that can only be a positive thing!Â
The tablets work just as well as supermarket brands, and I couldn’t tell any difference between using these and my usual high street detergent.
The Only Downside…
The one thing that I didn’t like about these laundry tablets was the fact that they have no fragrance, and there’s no option on their website for a scented version.
This isn’t a major problem, and doesn’t affect the effectiveness of the product, it’s just a matter of personal preference. I’d love to see Blueland release a scented laundry detergent tablet in the future!
Toilet Bowl Cleaner Starter Set
Initial Impressions
This was my favourite of the three products to try out!
Watching the tablets fizz in the water reminded me of the fun of watching a bath bomb fizz and swirl in the tub when you’re younger. They make cleaning your bathroom a lot more interesting and a lot less work too!
You simply throw the cleaning tablets into your toilet bowl and leave them to sit for a few minutes and work their magic, then once they dissolve you simply brush it around the bowl to make sure that it cleans all surfaces.
Results
These get five stars from me for convenience. They were so quick and easy to use, and leaving them to fizz allows you time to do other things while they do all the work for you.Â
They definitely work well and leave the bowl visibly shinier, plus the lemon scent is strong enough that it remains after they’ve dissolved which is great.
How do Blueland Toilet Bowl Cleaning Tablets Compare to Supermarket Brands?
I’m all about making household cleaning easier, and these innovative products are a perfect way to do this.
The elimination of plastic from these products makes you wonder why it’s become the norm for us to use cleaning supplies that are so wasteful when there are alternatives like these out there! These show that it is possible to find household products that are better for the environment and convenient too.
The Verdict on Blueland Cleaning Products
All of Blueland’s cleaning products did exactly the job that they claim to do, and for me that makes this a great cleaning brand to choose. They don’t make you pick between product quality and the environment which is brilliant, not to mention the fact that their designs are aesthetically appealing and innovative too.Â
Their use of mostly naturally derived products is another great thing to see! Blueland ensures that there are no PVAs, no parabens, no ammonia, and no chlorine bleach used in any of their products. They are all 100% plastic free, and are completely transparent about their ingredients, listing all and explaining what they’re used for so you can understand the purpose of each individual component.
How Much do Blueland Products Cost?
It’s worth noting that most of the product refill packs are more expensive than the majority of high street alternatives. Therefore, this might not be a swap that everybody can make. That said, if you’re looking for household items that use high quality products but don’t harm the environment then I highly recommend Blueland!
The tablet trio that we tested is $58 and that consisted of 60 tablets in the detergent packages, and 14 of the toilet bowl cleaners. You can buy larger refill packs if preferred, and these do work out cheaper. You can also subscribe and save 20% on most of their products and receive new refills automatically every 3 months!
Ready to Try Blueland?
Their use of natural ingredients make the brand especially appealing to families who want to make sure that the products they’re using for themselves and their children are non-toxic and natural.
With products like foaming hand soap tablets, multi-surface cleaner, as well as a range of personal care products, there are loads more cleaning essentials for you to try out. To discover these visit the Blueland website.
This Article is Sponsored by Our Friends at Blueland.
Ellie recently graduated from University of Sheffield after studying English Literature. She loves all things related to books and writing, as well as being interested in fashion and art.
