Laundry Sheets: Why Ditch the Liquid?
Last Updated: Feb 23, 2025Can Green Washing Be a Good Thing? Not greenwashing—as in making misleading claims about a product's environmental impact—but green washing, as in making your laundry practices more environmentally friendly. With Americans laundering more than 35 billion loads a year, cleaning up our cleaning practices could hugely benefit the environment.
An approach that's catching on in North America is using detergent-infused strips or sheets in place of traditional powdered or liquid laundry detergents. Advocates say these lighter, easier-to-transport products can trim carbon emissions and reduce the number of plastic laundry jugs that end up in landfills each year.
According to their manufacturers, they also contain less toxic ingredients than traditional liquid or pod-borne competitors, making them healthier for humans and the environment.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Laundry Sheet?
- Are Laundry Sheets Environmentally Friendly?
- How Much Waste Do Laundry Sheets Eliminate?
- Are Laundry Sheets Healthy?
- What Are Other Benefits of Laundry Sheets?
- Do Laundry Sheets Work?
- How Long Do Laundry Sheets Last?
- Do Laundry Sheets Cost More Than Liquid Detergent?
- What Are Some Popular Brands of Laundry Sheets?
- What Are the Drawbacks to Laundry Sheets?
What Is a Laundry Sheet?
Laundry sheets or strips are composed of cleaning agents pressed into a flexible sheet that dissolves in water. Most are sold in recyclable or compostable cardboard boxes or sleeves.
These products may be having a moment, but they aren't new. They've been used for years in Europe and Asia. One popular US brand, Sheets Laundry Club, licenses a patent developed—but never launched—by home products giant Kimberly-Clark in 2003. "Twenty years ago, the demand wasn't there," said Parks Thompson, VP of the brand for Sheets. Now, however, it is.
Are Laundry Sheets Environmentally Friendly?
Because they are lighter and less bulky than liquid and powdered competitors, makers of laundry strips say they can reduce the effect that distributing them has on the environment.
For example, in its advertising, sheet brand Tru Earth compares the 40 grams of liquid detergent needed to wash a laundry load to the weight of a strip—3 grams—to claim a 94% reduction in transportation fuel consumption and carbon emissions, lowering the product's embodied energy impact drastically.
But representatives of other brands interviewed said such reductions were hard to quantify. Makers also say laundry strips are kinder to the environment because they don't use chemicals such as phosphates, which can cause algae blooms that threaten aquatic life or synthetic surfactants that enable pollutants to penetrate and endanger waterways.
How Long Do Laundry Sheets Last?
The shelf life of laundry sheets ranges from one-and-a-half to about two years. That compares to a year for sealed liquid laundry detergent and about six months once it's opened. Powdered detergents, when kept dry, last indefinitely.
What Are the Drawbacks to Laundry Sheets?
At present, it's hard to find laundry sheets on store shelves. But that may be changing. Tran says Kind is discussing distribution through Target and Whole Foods, and the brand is sold at some eco-friendly retailers. Sheets Laundry Club is sold at Camping World and Canoe World stores – the product's lightweight and compactness makes it a favorite among the RV crowd, says Thompson – and that company is also in talks with Target.
In the meantime, many brands of laundry strips are available online through large retailers and their own brand websites.
With still more products expected to enter the market, it could be laundry sheets will soon put a whole new spin on the way we wash our clothes.
