Going green: Washing your hands and doing laundry

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Finding cleaning products that come in paper or cardboard keeps getting easier.We wanted to know if they actually get the job done and save you money.

The pandemic taught us just how important hand hygiene is. We went to UPMC infectious diseases specialist Dr. Graham Snyder to see if a bar of soap gets the germs off your hands as well as liquid.

"The short answer is, it's probably fine," Snyder said. "If somebody wants to nitpick the science, there are a couple studies that say bacteria can sit around on soap. But nobody's ever proven that that makes a difference. And you probably wash them off anyway."

A refresher lesson on effective hand-washing. Here's what Snyder recommends:

Ok, that's with liquid — what about a bar of soap? It doesn't get more old-timey than that."The key with a bar of soap is, you want to get the suds," Snyder said. "Because again, it's the substances that are in the soap that can help loosen dirt and bacteria and break down those bacteria cell walls potentially. It's the same outcome, whether it's foam soap or liquid soap."

While he says bar soap is not a good idea in a hospital setting, at home, it's fine."I think bar soap, liquid soap, one of the pumps that makes the foaming soap ... any of the three of those are going to serve you really well," Snyder said.

Remember, as long as you are getting a good lather and you take your time to get all the surfaces scrubbed, Snyder says it doesn't matter what form your hand soap comes in.

It's all about the bubbles.

"That's a good way to think of it. When I'm at home with our toddler, we're trying to teach her how to do her hands. We don't stop washing our hands until we see good bubbles and we cover all the surfaces of our hands and finger. And that's how you know you've done a good job," Snyder said. Now let's do some laundry. Edgewood resident Tara Monaco just started using a new product: laundry strips.

"We use so much plastic" with laundry detergent bottles "because everyone loves a different flavor or a different smell," she said. "These are impossible to recycle: look how big they are. And I can't even carry them half the time."Monaco says she has been trying to get her family on board with laundry strips. Her family resisted the change, then she eventually decided she was "going to work these into our routine and not tell anybody."We wanted to know if her laundry sneak attack on her family worked. Using the strips of detergent is easy.Monaco says one strip can do a full-stuffed load. A dehydrated laundry detergent strip looks like a dryer sheet, but it has a tacky feel to it. After putting a strip to the test, Monaco gives the strips four out of four stars.She said they leave her laundry "so clean. It's perfect." Monaco said it is saving her money, too.For $12.69 on Amazon, I found laundry strips that say they'll do 160 medium loads. That's less than 8 cents a load. For $12.79, you can buy a plastic bottle of Tide that says it will do just 64 loads, or just under 20 cents a load.

The laundry strips save you money. Moms like Monaco are getting their family on track to save the planet and save a buck.Families "just need that little push," she said. "Honestly, like I said, it smells fresh, nobody even recognizes the difference and — " she said, pointing to a plastic detergent bottle — "that's not going to fill up the recycling bin."

We also did some high-level math to see if using bar soap over liquid soap saves you money. It does — a lot.

One thousand handwashes with liquid soap runs about $12.73. One thousand handwashes with bar soap costs a fraction of that: $4.51.