Sustainability in Vanlife - Hygiene and personal care

First of all: cleanliness is also possible in a motorhome. The myth that you automatically stink after a two-week camping holiday is really no longer true.

Let's take a closer look.

What actually is sustainability?

The foundation stone for sustainable thinking was laid by the Freiberg chief miner Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645-1714), who is often referred to as the "father" of sustainability. He transferred the concept of sustainability to forestry by recommending, only cut as much wood as can grow back naturally. The aim of this principle was to, natural systems in the long term.

The United Nations formulates: "Sustainable development is development that ensures that future generations are not worse off in meeting their needs than present generations".

This definition often leads to discussions due to its scope for interpretation. Herman Daly, former Senior Economist in the Environment Department of the World Bank, specified the core elements of sustainability taking into account ecological aspects. He stated:

1. The rate of depletion of renewable resources must not exceed their rate of regeneration.
2. Emissions must not exceed the assimilation capacity.
3. The consumption of non-renewable resources must be balanced by the growth of renewable resources.

Short: We have to live within the planetary boundaries. Not beyond them.

This perspective emphasises the protection of natural resources and takes into account the limited capacities of humans and nature, with nature at the centre.

Personally, I always speak of environmental sustainability. Because there is also social and economic sustainability. Also important topics, absolutely! This is about ecological sustainability.

Okay, got it. But what do we do as Vanlifers? Do we have any influence at all?

Yes, we have. We can look, for example,

• how we deal with resources
• how much waste we produce
• what we bring into nature or dispose of properly
• how much we consume in the first place
• and what we really need

Let's first look at what is different from a permanent home:
We have usually less space and must Pay attention to the weight. We have rarely the same shopswhere we can buy what we are used to. And if we live as a couple, we might have Different preferences and requirements.

All these reasons speak for a Reduction. So we look closely at what we need.

What we use personally (perhaps for comparison, perhaps for inspiration?)

• Bio-Hair soap for washing hair and showering (what washes the hair can also cleanse the skin)
• Deodorantwhich we mix ourselves from predominantly organic ingredients. (recipe below)
• Everyday ointment in case the water is very chlorinated and the skin feels dry (I make my own cream from olive oil, collected calendula flowers and bee or cadellila wax, Recipe below).
• Toothbrushes & Toothbrush Tablets (here we use the fluoride-free toothpaste tablets, which cause almost no waste and clean just as well as toothpaste, but with a minimum of ingredients such as preservatives, parabens, aluminium, bleaching agents and artificial colours, questionable surfactants for foaming, petroleum-based polyethylene glycols (PEG) and titanium dioxide.
• Shavers & Hair Clippers (Here we opted for an electric version that we can charge in the van. No disposable razors (lots of rubbish) and no shaving chemicals. Alternatively, shaving razor and shaving soap (we also have it with us, but don't use it, oh well).
• Menstrual cup. A zero waste menstrual product. Can be used for at least two years, not a disposable item. No fragrances or dyes. No hormonal treatment of the surface (like some tampons and pads). And no waste. (Almost 50 billion menstrual products are consumed and thrown away every year in the EU alone, or to put it another way: every menstruating person uses an average of around 14,000 disposable tampons and pads in the course of their lifetime).
• Q-tips or ear sticks: We have them too. Yes, you don't need them, but we do. We have some made of paper with cotton wool, without a central plastic rod. You can get them in all major drugstores.
• Flannel instead of a daily shower. There is nothing more to say about it.
• And my Guilty Pleasure for the hair: protective oil for better combing from a renowned hairdressing salon. Not organic, not readily degradable. The small bottle lasts one to one and a half years, so minimal consumption. Sorry, we are all no saints...

That's not much, admittedly. But for almost three years we really don't need any more.

This minimalism in the bathroom has three clear advantages for us:

• We live More environmentally sustainable (less consumption, less packaging, less transport of products, etc.).
• We lead our body significantly less chemically and hormonally produced substances.
• We live very sparingly.

Because: Every product we buy has to be manufactured, packaged, stored, transported and the packaging disposed of. The most sustainable products are the ones we don't buy in the first place!

Let's take a closer look!

To do this, we occasionally use the website or the App Codecheck. Here we can wonderfully scan how healthy and sustainable the ingredients are. In many soaps, shampoos, creams and other "hygiene" products there are Carcinogenic substances, microplastics or hormone cocktailsthat belong neither on our skin nor in the sewage, do they?

But it is biodegradable! It's only good to a certain extent.

If something is biodegradable, it means that it can be decomposed by small organisms called microorganisms. This produces water, mineral salts and carbon dioxide. But this does not mean that it is always good for the environment. You also have to pay attention to where and how quickly something is decomposed and whether harmful substances are produced in the process. Not everything that is considered biodegradable is really environmentally friendly.

The Detergents Ordinance is a set of rules that defines how and when detergent active substances (surfactants) in detergents are considered biodegradable. Under laboratory conditions, these surfactants must Break down 80 per cent within 28 days. If they manage to do that, they can also be broken down well in sewage treatment plants.

That leaves 20 %. And that's only if the whole thing ends up in the sewage treatment plant. Garden, lake, meadow: taboo!

So if you shower outside and use biodegradable products, that's not necessarily good. Because the water does not flow into a sewage treatment plant where it could be purified. In addition, wastewater from showers and washbasins should not simply flow into the gully, because there it is often only filtered and then discharged into rivers or lakes. Only rainwater should flow into the drains. What else gets into it, for example microplastics or oil from cars, is another issue and another problem.

Our conclusion

• Less is more! For products and washing & showering habits
• Organic products are preferable to conventional products for the body and the environment
• Biodegradable only means that it can be degraded in sewage treatment plants with specially bred cultures. So no hair washing on the beach!
• Disposable products (dental floss, wet wipes, nappies, pads, tampons, disposable flannels, Zewa cloths, disposable razors, etc.) are a ecological disaster and do not belong in an ecologically sustainable camper.
• The Birth control pill leaves substances in the urine after ingestion, as is the case with all Medicines is the case. Wastewater treatment plants cannot completely remove these contaminants from the wastewater. Therefore, the chemical residues end up in rivers, lakes, seas and even groundwater.
• Please use up everything you have left now. And only then decide again. Throwing it away would be even more stupid!

Transparency

We are not chemists, not sustainability experts and rather see things with "common sense & love for nature". So if there are any mistakes, let us know, if something is missing, let us know. If you have questions: go ahead, that's what the comments column is for!

Sources, last accessed 08 June 2023

https://www.ikw.org/haushaltspflege/wissen/tenside-waschaktive-substanzen-in-reinigungsmitteln-waschmitteln-und-spuelmitteln

https://leise-reise.de/koerperpflege-im-camper/

https://www.vulvani.com/menstruation-in-zahlen-wegwerfprodukte-kosten-und-muell

https://www.brigitte.de/aktuell/gesellschaft/so-viel-muell-entsteht-durch-tampons-und-binden-11102124.html

https://erdbeerwoche.com/meine-umwelt/muellproblem/

https://www.careelite.de/nachhaltige-koerperpflege-tipps-badezimmer/

https://www.smarticular.net/themen/koerperpflege/

https://shop.mhp-verlag.de/themen/hygiene/hygiene-plus/gruene-hygiene.-nachhaltige-sanitaerraumausstattung

https://www.codecheck.info/news/Gewusst-Die-Antibabypille-schadet-auch-der-Umwelt-148188

The whole thing also works with Candellila wax! Then it is vegan and animal-free.

---

Thank you for reading our sustainability thoughts. Every two to three weeks on Mondays we write something about the possibility of living future-oriented in the van. We try to shed light on different areas and hope to do so without pointing fingers.

Our focus is on the joy of van life and the many possibilities. We want to avoid the usual doomsday and renunciation communication.

You can find all the sustainability posts collected in the Category Future.

You think this could also be of interest to others? Then you can download the Share post quietly. By e-mail or however you want to do it.

In addition, if you haven't already done so, you can use our Newsletter subscribe. Here you will receive all our experiences in your mailbox whenever we publish something new or once a week on Fridays: live-pur.ch/newsletter

Or you can just subscribe to our Sustainability articles. You can do that right here:

We are also very happy to hear your views, your tips or your questions. Just comment on the post!

Best regards - Heike & Gerd