Why buy packaged water bottle cleaning tablets with highly synthesised ingredients when you can easily made your own! These ingredients are readily available (and possibly already in your pantry), affordable, and have a lower environmental impact than synthetic chemicals.
Fizzy bottle clean tablets are actually quite similar to a fizzy bath bombs and toilet bombs! Here we'll explain why, and how you can make your own water bottle cleaning tablets.
What is a water bottle cleaning tablet?
Designed to easily pop into a bottle and fizz away to clean your reusable water bottle with minimum scrubbing from you! When dropped into water, certain effervescent ingredients create a fizzy reaction that helps to loosen and remove dirt and bacteria from the bottle's interior.
They often also include a surfactant (detergent) that helps to strip oils, and hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate to disinfect and sanitise.
Are bottle cleaning tablets eco friendly?
It depends on the source and safety of the ingredients, the packaging, and whether it is 'overkill' for the purpose.
Bottle cleaning tablets are yet another often plastic packaged product that contains a lot of of synthetic chemicals. Even though these industrial chemicals are said to be plant-derived or mineral based, they usually use some petrochemicals in the process and are shipped around the world.
Instead, just like with hand washing, all you need is good old fashioned soap, hot water, and scrubbing with a brush to remove most bacteria.
For something more sanitising, you can simply use white vinegar, bicarb soda, even lemon juice, and a little oxygen bleach (sodium percarbonate).
What are bottle cleaning tablets made from?
As we love to do at Biome, let's first deep dive into the ingredients in commercial bottle cleaning tablets, whether Bright or other brands, they are essentially the same.
Most brands will tell you what they do not contain, but they are not so upfront about what they do contain!
How to make a water bottle cleaning tablet
Our DIY homemade recipe uses ingredients that have many other uses in your eco friendly home cleaning and laundry.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon sodium percarbonate (Oxygen Bleach) - See below - do not leave lid on water bottle when using the cleaning tablet!
- 1/2 cup bicarb soda
- 1/4 cup citric acid
- 3 teaspoons of liquid castile soap
Method
- Combine and mix the bicarb soda with the oxygen bleach first.
- Add the castile soap gradually. A teaspoon at a time pressing down any clumps.
- Add the citric acid last and combine well. You should reach the consistency of damp clumpy sand.
- Press the mixture firmly into an ice cube tray.
- Leave the tablets to dry for 12 hours. Carefully remove from the tray and leave to dry for a further 12 hours.
- Store them in an airtight container. Airtight is important, because any moisture in the air will start to activate the fizzing!
To use your homemade water bottle cleaning tablet, drop one tablet into your water bottle, fill it with water, agitate a little (with the lid off) and let it sit for 15-30 minutes.
Please note that sodium percarbonate creates a lot of oxygen, so do not screw on the lid or your bottle may explode.
With a brush to clean bottles, scrub inside and then rinse thoroughly with water.
Voila, you have saved unnecessary chemical manufacturing and packaging by simplifying and making your own bottle cleaning tablets.
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