Last Updated on March 12, 2024

I’m sharing 5 reasons to try Tru Earth laundry strips! When I tried TruEarth laundry detergent for the first time, I couldn’t have been more impressed. So when I was asked to share my thoughts, I was thrilled to give my full Tru Earth laundry strips review.

This Tru Earth review covers the company’s eco friendly approach, including their ingredients, packaging, and efficacy. Tru Earth laundry strips reviews all the say the same thing: they work just as well as traditional laundry detergent, without all the muss and fuss. Learn 5 reasons why you should consider using Tru Earth eco-strips laundry detergent in your own home!

This post was sponsored by Tru Earth. All thoughts and opinions are my own. For more information please see my disclosure policy.

tru earth laundry strips review: is it really eco friendly?

The first topic in my Tru Earth eco strips review is, obviously — is it really eco friendly?

Water is a precious resource: Only .007% of the water on our planet is available to feed and fuel its 6.8 billion people. That’s not a lot of water, so it’s incredibly important to keep our waterways clean and healthy!

One of the ways I like to do that is by opting for biodegradable laundry detergents because many conventional ones contain ingredients like phosphates and surfactants (or surface-active agents) that are toxic to aquatic life.

With droughts and water scarcity becoming more common, there’s less water to split among us. That’s just one more reason to preserve our waterways for all the Earth’s inhabitants!

Average daily indoor water use in the US is around 60 gallons per person per day, but our virtual water use — in other words, how much water goes into the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the products we use every day — is in the thousands of gallons.

Don’t believe me? Check out the Water Footprint Calculator — it’s very eye-opening. The US Average is 2,220 Gallons/Day — think you can beat it?

Seeing how much actual water and virtual water you use each day will inspire you to conserve it. A simple way to save water is by switching to waterless products like Tru Earth.

tru earth reviews

I join the other Tru Earth reviews that rave about the benefits of switching to eco strips rather than liquid — or worse — pods. From the true ecological benefits to the effectiveness, I was pleased with my experience using the TruEarth strips.

My True Earth review will cover the water usage, packaging, effectiveness, and safety (for you and your appliances) so you can make a truly informed decision before purchasing TruEarth for yourself.

tru earth eco-strips laundry detergent saves water

Waterless detergents, like Tru Earth eco-strips laundry detergent, save A LOT of water. That’s because they get to skip:

• the plastic bottles (Did you know it takes 3 liters of water to make ONE liter of bottled water?)
• the added water
• the fuel to transport that heavy, heavy bottle. 

In fact, water accounts for around one fifth of the total ingredients in liquid laundry detergents! And globally, over 4 trillion cubic meters of fresh water are used every year. The need to conserve has never been greater.

Concentrated detergents require less plastic for bottles, less water, less corrugated cardboard for crating, less gasoline used, and fewer trucks to move the shipments (source).

A single eco strip weighs less than 3 grams, which is a whopping 94% lighter than the world’s leading detergent (weighing in at over 40 grams)! And because these strips are so much lighter, they have a much smaller carbon footprint when it comes to transportation! I mean, why pay to ship water around the world when we could just use the water we have at home?

the convenience factor can’t be beat

Instead of liquid or powdered laundry detergent, Tru Earth strips come in sheet form. You simply rip off a strip, place it in your washing machine, add your clothes on top, and let the machine take care of the rest.

1 strip equals 1 load, making each pack good for 32 loads. I’ve seen people add 2 for ‘extra clean’, but I found that with my laundry, 1 strip did the job just fine. It makes it super easy to know how much you have left, how many loads you can fit until you need more, and it means you never have to measure a load again.

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

tru earth zero waste packaging

Tru Earth eco strips are completely plastic free. They come in a compostable cardboard sleeve that doubles as a shipping envelope. Can’t get more low waste than that!

Approximately 1 billion laundry jugs are discarded in the United States each year. Only 30% percent of these plastic jugs get recycled, while the remaining 70% end up in landfills, with many finding their way into our oceans.

This doesn’t take into account all the resources and energy that went into making each jug (aka its life cycle.)

Plastic jugs are made from crude oil, a nonrenewable resource, that has to be extracted from earth in an unsustainable way. Then, the crude oil is transported to be molded into the shape of a jug — a process that also burns fossil fuels. 

Now, packaging isn’t everything when choosing a laundry detergent, but it should definitely factor in somewhere. Sustainable packaging is important because it reduces the ecological footprint of a product in its various life cycle stages.

Since Tru Earth has less packaging, you also have more space to fit other things in your cleaning caddy. More space means room for other zero waste cleaning products too, like my DIY tub scrub.

truearth non toxic ingredients mean a healthy family

TruEarth is a non toxic laundry detergent in many ways. It’s safe for both humans and the environment, thanks to its smart formulation.

It’s paraben-free, phosphate-free, and chlorine bleach-free. There are also no added dyes, and it’s free of 1,4-dioxane. FYI, all of these ingredients are usually in conventional detergents and contribute to the decline of our waterways.

Phosphate can lead to eutrophication in waterways resulting in big algae blooms. These algae blooms deplete the water of oxygen and can harm marine wildlife.

Tru Earth lists all of its ingredients on its website and explains what each ingredient does and why it belongs. Transparency is one of the things I look for in brands when judging their sustainability claims.

Lack of transparency is a key warning sign a brand might be greenwashing you. Always look for transparency and specificity in an easy-to-find part of their website.

All of Tru Earth’s laundry strips are vegan and cruelty free. They come in four different scents, including a baby-friendly one and an unscented one. Both of those are hypoallergenic. Even most natural fragrances set off my allergies or leave me with a headache, so my personal favorite is the unscented. My clothes just smell like fresh, clean clothes — no extra fragrance needed!

septic, HE + cold water safe

This laundry detergent checks off all the boxes. Its low-sudsing formula works in all types of washing machines, including high-efficiency (HE). It completely dissolves in both hot and cold water. Last but not least, it’s septic-safe.

Why is low sudsing detergent good? Bubbles don’t clean your clothes. The saponified molecules in water are what do the cleaning.

Many conventional detergents that produce lots of suds typically use suds-producing agents that don’t enhance cleaning power — they’re only added for appearances.

If you want to save energy and have a high-efficiency (HE) washer, you’re better off with a low sudsing detergent like Tru Earth.

Regular detergent produces too many suds HE machines and can cause the washer to repeatedly rinse laundry. This just makes your machine work harder at washing the bubbles off and results in more wasted energy, water, and time.

Less bubbles, less energy consumption — it’s a win-win.

works efficiently

The moment you’ve all been waiting for: Does Tru Earth laundry detergent actually work? The answer is yes — and it works surprisingly well! I’ve had a hard time in the past finding a low-waste, eco friendly detergent that I simply fell in love with.

Either they failed to make my clothes smell fresh, or they couldn’t remove stains, or they left a gross film on my clothes. It felt like this was one area I just wouldn’t be able to go zero waste on.

And to be honest, I wasn’t sure if a 2″ x 4″ strip could wash a whole load of clothes, so I was skeptical when giving it a try.

But I was happily proven wrong when my clothes came out clean and fresh — in a natural way that didn’t leave me with a headache that many synthetic fragrances leave me with.

bonus – you can now buy it locally!

When I originally posted this review, you could only buy Tru Earth online through their website. However, it’s now carried by many large retailers, including Kroger, Walmart, Alberton’s, and more! In fact, there are over 7,000 retail locations that carry Tru Earth eco strips, so you can save even more (both money- and resource-speaking) by shopping locally.

Having eco-friendly brands in local and big brand stores is a huge step toward more people purchasing environmentally friendly products. Accessibility is everything! Keeping these products front of mind will also help educate the masses on the importance of doing so!

tru earth faqs

what are the scents available for the eco strips?

Tru Earth laundry strips come in 4 scents for any taste. You can choose from Lilac Breeze, Fresh Linen, Baby, and Unscented (especially perfect for those who are sensitive to scents). You can also choose from a package of 32, 64, or 384 strips.

will tru earth remove stains as well as traditional detergent does?

I feel as though they do! In all transparency, I live a fairly mellow life and don’t deeply stain my clothes. However, the mild stains I did incur from spilling on a shirt or kneeling on the ground came out in just one wash!

The website recommends checking the stain after washing. If you’re not happy with the removal, wash again prior to drying. The heat from drying will cause the stain to ‘set in,’ making it much harder to get out going forward!

does tru earth have other eco friendly products?

Yes! The eco laundry strips are their flagship product. However, they’ve since expanded to offer toilet bowl cleaner, multi-purpose cleaner, dishwasher detergent, and a number of eco friendly household items that range from cotton swabs to toilet brushes.

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I’d like to thank Tru Earth for sponsoring this post. I’ve been a big fan since I wrote about them in my Laundry Detergent post a few months ago.

Water savings is an incredibly important issue, so be sure to check out my blog post 10 easy ways to save water for further reading!

Have you tried any just-add-water products? I would love to hear about them in the comments below. Also let me know if you’ve tried Tru Earth, especially if you’ve tried the fresh linen — curious to hear about your experience!