Tru Earth: Laundry Detergent Review
**This article contains affiliate links**
If you use any of the provided links to purchase products from Tru Earth, I may earn a small commission that goes towards supporting this platform. I have purchased these products with my own money and the following review is my own opinion.
To set the parameters of this review, I don’t have kids or pets (yet). In my household there are three adults and we all share the laundry detergent. This review is coming from the perspective of the average consumer wanting to make more affordable and greener choices. Over the past five years of being financially independent, I have tried to be more conscious of my purchasing habits and go for more eco-friendly products and companies. When you look into how much waste we produce as humans through our obsession with plastics, online shopping, and unsustainable production practices, its impact on the ecosystem is alarming. To ease my green conscience, I try to make as many eco-friendly choices as I can (every little bit helps) and this includes my laundry detergent.
If you want to skip right to my final thoughts (I get it, some of us are impatient), click here
Facebook Ads
Originally I saw Tru Earth plastered across my Facebook feed. They were advertising their laundry detergent boasting that it was “saving 700,000,000 plastic jugs out of the landfills per year” and they were “hypoallergenic and paraben-free”. What interested me was the fact that it was biodegradable, in convenient rippable sheets, and a year’s worth of laundry was packaged in a small recyclable box.
After a year of seeing these ads, Tru Earth was having a Black Friday sale and I decided to bite the bullet. I bought a year’s worth of laundry strips that came bundled with beeswax wraps (a review on those at a later time) for $123.17 CAD (384 loads). The regular price of a year pack of strips is roughly $149.00 CAD before tax which roughly breaks down to $0.32 CAD-$0.39 CAD per load.
First Impressions
I was supremely impressed with the packaging and the size of the laundry detergent. I have a very small laundry room and the box took up little to no space at all compared to regular liquid laundry detergent. The box itself is cardboard which breaks down easier than plastic, another bonus towards choosing packaging that is more eco-friendly.
The strips themselves come in pairs. One strip is for a regular sized load so all you have to do is rip off a strip, throw it in your washer, and that’s it. If you have a medium or small load, you can rip one strip in half, making it more customizable than traditional laundry pods. Other than ease of use, the other most notable difference compared to traditional laundry detergent is the suds.
Tru Earth produces little to no suds in the washing machine which can be strange when you’re more accustomed to seeing the white foam sloshing around your machine. On first use, I was questioning whether or not the laundry detergent was actually working. Upon further research, I found out that the sudsing action of laundry detergent doesn’t contribute to how ‘clean’ your clothes are. The only function of suds is to visually let the consumer know that the detergent is working. Too much sudsing can actually be damaging to your machine (HE washers) so it’s better to use low-sud formulas such as Tru Earth laundry detergent to extend the lifespan of your machine.
After 6+ Months of Usage
I have been using Tru Earth detergent for over 6 months now. In that time, I’ve been able to break down my thoughts into a pros and cons list.
Cons
Doesn’t get all stains out (stain fighting power is on par with traditional liquid detergents)
Can ‘melt’ in more humid climates
More expensive than traditional detergent
Hard to find in physical stores
Pros
Wastes less than liquid detergent because it’s easier to measure what you need
Takes up minimal space
Biodegradable
Great for sensitive skin
Packaging is recyclable
Offers varieties such as; fresh linen, scent-free, and ‘baby’
Canadian made and more sustainable shipping practises
The option of a subscription service for discounted product
Dissolves in warm or cold water
My Thoughts
To touch on a few of the above mentioned pros and cons:
Great for Sensitive Skin
I absolutely love Tru Earth laundry detergent strips. I have sensitive skin and I find their original formulation is gentle enough where it doesn’t irritate my skin, even with the dry winter air. However, they do have the scent-free option for those that have extremely sensitive skin or sensitivity to scents in general. In terms of its stain-fighting power, it works just as well as any other detergent. Its stain rival is grease, but again, grease stains are notoriously hard to remove in general.
Customizable for Load Size
I also appreciate how easy it is to rip the stripes to accommodate for load size. My problem with traditional liquid detergent is that it’s hard to use the bottle up completely because there’s always leftover solution clinging to the inside of the bottle. It’s also easy to overpour liquid detergent and damage your machine over time. With technology like detergent pods, you’re also putting in too much soap with a small load and you’re adding microplastics to the water as it breaks down in your washing machine. A large portion of these microplastics make their way back into lakes, rivers, and oceans, affecting aquatic ecosystems.
A Little Bit More Expensive
While most detergents out there are less expensive than Tru Earth, the likelihood of wasting detergent is higher which results in purchasing detergent more frequently. In my area, I can purchase detergent pods for about $0.27 CAD each at Costco making Tru Earth, on the high end, 10 cents more expensive per load ($38.40 per year more expensive) than a leading competitor. When you take into account purchasing Tru Earth laundry strips on sale, the unused liquid detergent in the bottle, as well as wasted pods (using a whole pod on a small load), this price gap becomes smaller.
My Final Thoughts
To summarize, I love Tru Earth strips, they’re easy to use, they get the majority of the stains out, my clothes smell great after a wash, and it takes up a fraction of the space in my laundry room. I like the idea of spending my money on a company that believes in sustainability but also on a company that gives back to the community (you can read about their charity initiatives here). It is roughly an extra 10 cents per load, so for this reason I do recommend Tru Earth laundry strips but if you can get it on sale.
If you need an extra push to try out Tru Earth laundry strips then keep reading!
Affiliate
Because I like Tru Earth so much (their products and company as a whole), I decided to become an affiliate. This means that if you use my link to purchase any of their products, I do get a small commission of that sale, which helps support me and make this blog the best it can be. It also means that I will get a heads-up to any future sales and discount codes before they become available to the public.
Email subscribers of this blog will get first access to discount codes from Tru Earth and sales will be posted on the blog social media pages.
