Many households are on a mission to live more sustainably, and eco-friendly cleaning products are an easy and effective switch. The UK laundry industry alone is responsible for producing nearly 11,000 tonnes of plastic packaging each year, while consumers are waking up to environmental pitfalls of common cleaning chemicals.

This ‘green cleaning’ movement is driving sales of products featuring natural ingredients and recyclable packaging. Here are seven exciting brands leading the charge:

1. The Cheeky Panda

27,000 trees are cut down every day to produce paper hygiene products. Knowing this, The Cheeky Panda turned to an alternative, eco-friendlier source: surplus bamboo. In addition to being more readily available, bamboo grows back 30 times faster than trees.

For keen cleaners, The Cheeky Panda’s product range includes eco-friendly kitchen towels and biodegradable surface wipes. And it appears there are a lot of consumers ready to embrace the bamboo movement: the brand raised over £1 million during a 2021 crowdfunding round, and it’s now considering an IPO.

2. Tru Earth

Increasing sustainability means finding new ways to approach traditional processes, and this is exactly what Tru Earth has achieved. The brand has created its own range of laundry strips as an environmentally-friendlier alternative to washing powders, liquids and capsules.

Tru Earth strips are small enough to be sent to customers through the mail, reducing transportation pollution by 90% compared to traditional products. The strips are also vegan friendly, hypoallergenic, zero waste and plastic-free.

3. Smol

We’ve mentioned Smol before in our blog post on subscription boxes, but it would be remiss to create a list of green cleaning brands without including them. At just four years old, the company has already received £24 million in Series B funding to accelerate new product development and European expansion.

The eco-cleaning pioneer stocks a growing list of environmentally-friendly products including laundry tablets, dishwashing detergent, fabric conditioner and surface sprays. These can be bought individually or as part of a starter kit, to help sustainable cleaning newcomers navigate which products to purchase.

4. Bio-D

Bio-D is one of the longer-established green cleaning companies, first launching in 1989. Michael Barwell founded the firm after being shocked to discover many of the industrial ingredients he used during his job cleaning commercial ships were also found in household cleaning products.

All the ingredients used in Bio-D’s products are ethically sourced, and the company regularly reports on its sustainability performance. It is continually developing environmentally friendly cleaning ideas, with newer innovations including plastic-free dishwasher tablets and vegan furniture polish in a 100% recyclable aluminium tin.

5. Bon Ami

The sustainable cleaning movement is seen as new and progressive, but Bon Ami’s roots are steeped in tradition. The company has been manufacturing cleaning products since 1886, using feldspar – a group of alumino-silicate minerals – as its base ingredient.

Bon Ami offers two key products, a cleaning powder for general use and a powder cleanser for hard-to-remove stains such as dried food and scuff marks. The concept of multi-purpose cleaning products also supports sustainable cleaning, as fewer solutions mean lower production and packaging requirements.

6. Blueland

Blueland takes eco-friendly cleaning seriously by focussing on both environmentally supportive ingredients and minimal product packaging. The brand operates a refill model to limit plastic waste, providing consumers with a ‘forever bottle’ to add water and either a cleaning or soap tablet.

Consumers can choose from a range of zero waste cleaning products including dishwasher tablets, toilet cleaner, glass & mirror cleaner, dish soap and laundry tablets. All of which are dispatched in compostable packaging. It recently raised $20 million in funding, with 95% female investors.

7. Spruce

Another leading brand in the refillable cleaning products movement is Spruce. The B Corp was founded by Mahira Kalim, who was dismayed to discover the number of endocrine disrupting chemicals found in household cleaners.

Spruce users only need to purchase cleaning bottles once. They are then sent product refills in compostable paper sachets – choosing between multipurpose or bathroom cleaner as either a one-off purchase or on a subscription basis.

Enjoyed this countdown? You may also like our blog posts on 10 of Britain’s brightest ethical brands and 9 brands whose tone of voice we love.

This blog post was written in August 2022. Facts were correct at the time of writing.