AIBU to return to using liquid soap?

[littlecabbage]

I switched to bar soap about a year ago, in an effort to reduce plastic waste (i.e. the bottles and pump mechanisms that come with liquid soap).

Since then, the cloakroom and bathroom basins have become slow to drain on many occasions. Pouring boiling water down only eases the problem slightly, and I have tried combinations of white vinegar and bicarb of soda (as recommended by t'internet). Eventually I have had to unscrew the pipe under the basin and clear out the clogged soap.

But in the last few weeks, two of my outside drains (that the kitchen sink and dishwasher drain into) became blocked, and I had to pay someone over £100 to unblock one of the pipes. He said it was full of food waste and soap. We are pretty good at scraping plates into the bin, so I suspect it was mostly soap.

Does anyone else get this issue? Surely our grandparents would have always used bar soap? I have ordered a bag of washing soda crystals (again as recommended by t'internet) to use in the basins/sink on a monthly basis, but am worried that if it doesn't work, the outside drains will block again.

Very tempted to return to liquid soap.....AIBU?

This is interesting. We have hard water and ongoing problems with the drains. I would not blame only soap, we have a host if possible reasons 🙄 but it seems the soap isn’t helping. I’m going to look into soda crystals, thank you.

A really helpful thread, thank you.

I take my empty bottles to be refilled by a local business. Worth seeing if you have one nearby?

I also get wash up liquid, wash powder, diswash powder and more. All good quality.

The brand they stock is sesi and they have a stockist list on their website [[https://sesi.org.uk/]]

We have hard water and use soap and no issues. Odd.

For the big refills we use the local refill shop and our local food co-op (more info www.sustainweb.org/foodcoops )- you're likely to have one in your area but may not have heard about it, they can be linked with other green groups like Transition. Just to note I'm not sure how up to date the locator is on that site as our local one is listed as they're not sure it's active, so may be worth doing a separate search.

We used to buy the big refills on t'interweb like on EthicalSuperstore but the co-op is easier - you can get lots at once and store. Many people do it for bulk stuff but you don't have to. It's like buying wholesale as a group, essentially, so makes everything a lot cheaper (and most had an ethical/organic/eco slant).

Also for pp's who use the squeezy packets for refills, have a look at www.terracycle.com/en-GB as you're likely to be able to recycle those (and recycling through there raises money for charity -plus they recycle loads of things which would otherwise probably go to landfill like toothbrushes, biscuit packets, crisp packets etc).