Sustainable Living · Holiday Season 2026
10 Plastic-Free Swaps to Lock In Before the Holidays
The holidays are the most wasteful time of year. Build the habits now before the chaos makes it harder.
Between Thanksgiving and New Year, Americans generate 25 million extra tons of waste. More packaging, more single-use everything, more plastic bags, wrapping paper and then some. The best time to build plastic-free habits is before the chaos begins, when there is still space to think and shop intentionally. Here are the ten swaps worth locking in right now, by room, before the holidays take over.
The kitchen is where holiday waste hits hardest. Extra cooking, extra cleaning, more plastic packaging coming in with groceries, and more single-use items reaching for convenience. These four swaps handle the highest-frequency plastic in the kitchen before the season kicks in.
Swap the Plastic Sponge for a Sisal Dish Scrubber
The average kitchen sponge gets replaced every two to three weeks. Over a year that is roughly 20 plastic sponges per household, each one shedding microplastics into your water with every use and then sitting in a landfill indefinitely. A sisal scrubber tackles stuck-on food, cast iron, and everyday dishes without shedding a single microplastic. It composts completely at end of life. And during the holidays, when the dishes pile up, it outperforms a conventional sponge on the tough stuff.
Shop the Sisal Dish Scrubber →Swap Plastic Wrap and Zip Bags for Silicone Food Covers
Holiday cooking means leftovers, and leftovers mean reaching for plastic wrap or zip bags. A set of silicone food and bowl covers replaces both. Airtight, dishwasher safe, and stretchy enough to fit any bowl, plate, or container. One set handles every leftover situation from Thanksgiving through New Year without a single piece of single-use plastic. This is one of the highest-frequency swaps in the kitchen and one of the easiest to make before the season starts.
Shop the Silicone Food Covers →Swap the Dish Soap Bottle for a Dish Soap Bar
The plastic bottle under your sink gets replaced every few weeks. Multiply that by the extra dishes, pots, and pans the holiday season generates and you are looking at three or four bottles between now and January. A dish soap bar does the same job, lasts significantly longer, and ships without any plastic packaging. No bottle. No pump. No plastic going into your recycling bin that probably will not get recycled anyway.
Shop the Dish Soap Bar →Swap Paper Towels for a Swedish Dishcloth
Americans use roughly 13 billion pounds of paper towels per year. During the holidays, with extra cooking, extra guests, and extra spills, that number climbs fast. A Swedish dishcloth is made from natural cellulose and cotton, absorbs 20 times its weight in liquid, and replaces up to 17 rolls of paper towels. It wipes, scrubs, and dries like a paper towel but washes clean in the dishwasher or washing machine and lasts for months. When it is done it composts completely. Hang it where your paper towel roll used to live and most people stop reaching for the roll within a few days.
Shop the Swedish Dishcloth →The bathroom is the room with the highest concentration of single-use plastic in most homes. Shampoo bottles, conditioner bottles, body wash, liquid soap, cotton rounds, toothbrushes. Most of it cycles through every few weeks. These swaps are the ones worth making before holiday guests arrive and before the post-holiday resolution push makes everything harder to find.
Swap Your Shampoo and Conditioner Bottles for Bars
The average person goes through 11 bottles of shampoo and conditioner per year. A shampoo bar lasts as long as two to three bottles, ships without plastic, and takes up a fraction of the space in your shower. If you have been meaning to make this switch, before the holidays is the right time. You will have it dialed in before guests arrive and before January when everyone is making the same resolution and the good ones sell out.
Shop Shampoo and Conditioner Bars →Swap Liquid Hand Soap for a Bar Soap and Draining Dish
Liquid soap in a plastic pump bottle is one of the most unnecessary uses of plastic in the home. Bar soap cleans just as well, lasts longer, and costs less. The key to making a bar soap work at the sink is a draining dish that keeps it dry between uses. A wet bar soap dissolves twice as fast. Get the soap and the dish together now and your bathroom sinks are sorted before the holiday guests show up.
Shop Bar Soap →Swap Disposable Cotton Rounds for Reusable Ones
The average person who uses disposable cotton rounds goes through about 730 of them per year. They are almost always individually wrapped in plastic, shipped in a plastic bag, and thrown away after a single use. Reusable hemp cotton rounds do the same job, wash clean, and last for years. If you use them twice a day you will replace over 700 disposable pads per year with a single set. Make this swap before the holidays and it runs on autopilot.
Shop Reusable Cotton Rounds →Swap Your Plastic Toothbrush for a Bamboo One
Eight billion plastic toothbrushes are thrown away globally every year. Every single one of them is still out there somewhere. A bamboo toothbrush has a compostable handle and works identically to a conventional one. This is one of the lowest-effort swaps on the list and one of the most satisfying to have done.
Shop the Bamboo Toothbrush →The laundry room is often the last place people think about when it comes to plastic waste. It should be one of the first. Detergent jugs, dryer sheets in plastic packaging, and fabric softener bottles add up fast during the holidays when laundry loads increase with guests, travel, and entertaining.
Swap Your Laundry Detergent Jug for Laundry Sheets
A standard laundry detergent jug is made from high-density polyethylene, weighs over three pounds when full, and gets thrown away every few weeks. Most curbside programs technically accept it, but the actual recycling rate for laundry jugs is low. A laundry sheet does the same job, ships flat in a cardboard sleeve, dissolves completely in the wash, and stores in a fraction of the space. Switch before the holidays and you will handle every extra load from Thanksgiving through January without touching a plastic jug.
Shop Laundry Sheets →Swap the Single-Use Shopping Bag for a Reusable Market Bag
The holiday season is the highest-frequency shopping period of the year. Grocery runs, gift shopping, farmers markets, holiday markets. Every one of those trips is an opportunity to bring a bag or reach for a plastic one. A GOTS-certified organic cotton market bag that holds up to 45 lbs handles all of it. Groceries, gifts, farmers market runs, and anything else the season throws at you. Keep one in your car now before the season starts and it becomes automatic.
Shop the One Tripper →"The best time to build a plastic-free habit is before the moment you need it. The holidays are coming. You have time right now."
The Bottom Line
Ten Swaps. One Holiday Season. A Lot Less Plastic.
You do not have to make all ten of these at once. Pick the two or three rooms where you generate the most waste and start there. The kitchen and bathroom together cover the majority of plastic in most households.
The reason to do this now rather than in January is simple. October and November are when the habits you build have time to become automatic before the season puts them to the test. Make the swap now and the holidays run on autopilot.
Everything on this list. All in one place.
Every product linked above is a sustainable counterpart to a product you are already using. Built for everyday use and the chaos of the holidays alike.
Shop the Full CollectionOur Mission + Impact
Holiday waste statistics from the Stanford University Recycling Center and the EPA. Paper towel consumption data from the American Forest and Paper Association. Toothbrush waste estimates from the American Dental Association and environmental materials researchers. Me Mother Earth is a vegan, Leaping Bunny certified, plastic-free brand based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
