How to make your own dish soap | Zero waste tutorial

In order to eat well, you either need to be a good cook, or be really good at doing the dishes. The fact that I am now writing a tutorial for homemade dish soap should give you hint as to which I am. :p

Unfortunately, many DIY dish soap recipes online simply don’t work at cutting grease. After a few duds, I finally alighted on this recipe, which while gentler than commercial dish soap does actually clean your dishes effectively.

It really does work! I’ve been using only this homemade recipe since 2018 and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to commercial dish soap.

That being said, be aware that DIY dish soap is gentler than commercial dish soap, so you might have to do a more scrubbing if you are dealing with very greasy dishes, such as if you frequently deep fry or cook meat at home.

How is homemade dish soap good for the environment?

Concocting your own homemade dish soap lets you reduce plastic waste as you no longer have to dispose of empty soap bottles.

Most of the ingredients are available package-free at zero waste stores in some locations. But even if you have to buy packaged vinegar, baking soda, washing soda and castile soap, the quantities used are tiny (just one teaspoon of each), so your supply will last for a long time.

This soap does not contain many of the toxic ingredients that you’ll find in commercial dish soaps, which means that they’re better for your health, the quality of the air in your home and also the environment when they get washed down your sink.

Is homemade dish soap expensive?

I’ve found the cost of this soap to be about the same as the cheap commercial dish soap I was using previously. Marseille soap is available locally and fairly cheaply where I am (I buy a 2kg block each time, which makes it cheaper). If you want to keep costs low, the price of your soap will be the determining factor.

Zero waste DIY dish soap recipe

Ingredients:

• 800 ml water
• 50g vegetable oil-based bar soap* (I use Marseille soap)
• 1 teaspoon liquid castile soap (optional) (I use savon noir)
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon washing soda** (sodium carbonate)
• Cheese grater or blender
• Empty bottle (a recycled detergent squeeze bottle will do)

*Any plant oil-based soap will do. The cheapest and most easily accessible soap will depend on where you live. Some options include castile soap (eg. Marseille soap), laurel or ghar soap (eg. Aleppo soap), or even ayurvedic soap (eg. Chadrika soap). If you can’t find an affordable option, try substituting this ingredient with other bar soaps.

** This is usually available in cardboard boxes at supermarkets from brands like Arm & Hammer. If you have a zero waste shop near you, they might sell this without packaging.

Attention: If you’re going to try to modify this recipe, one piece of advice I can give you is to not leave out the washing soda, as it’s the key to getting rid of the grease on your dishes.

Step 1

Grate the soap bar with the cheese grater or blend it until it turns into a powder. (Watch out for your fingers! You don’t want to wash your dishes in blood.)

Step 2

Bring the water to a boil in a sauce pan.

Step 3

Turn off the heat and add the grated/blended soap powder.

Step 4

Stir and let it sit until the powder has dissolved.

Step 5

Add the liquid castile soap, white vinegar, baking soda and washing soda (in that order) and stir to dissolve. The mixture might fizz a bit when you add some of these ingredients, especially the washing soda. Try not to breathe in the fumes–open a window and distance yourself from the mixture for a bit.

Step 6

Let it sit for a few hours. The mixture will become a bit thicker as water evaporates.

Step 7

If the mixture solidifies into a paste, add a bit of water and stir to thin it out.

Step 8

Transfer the mixture into the empty squeeze bottle.

Does it work as well as commercial dish soaps?

This dish soap doesn’t produce bubbles the way a commercial dish soap does, but that doesn’t mean it’s not working. Just don’t expect it to get all foamy, since it doesn’t contain sodium laureth sulfate, which produces bubbles in commercial dish soaps.

The contents of the soap bar you use will also affect the performance of your final product. Sticking with soaps made of natural (eg. olive) oil with no added glycerine helps, as glycerine might leave a film on your dishes.

HELP! My dish soap has into a solid chunk of gunk!

The consistency of your homemade dish soap will vary depending on the ambient temperature and how much water you use. In cold weather, it can solidify into a goofy block. Giving the bottle a big shake usually solves this issue. In hot weather, you might see your dish soap separating into two layers, with a darker, liquid layer sinking to the bottom of the bottle. This is completely fine, just give the bottle a quick shake before squeezing to ensure everything gets mixed together nicely.