Are Dr. Bronner's products safe to use outdoors?Updated a year ago

Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Soap was the original camping soap and is safe to use in and around nature. Our Pure-Castile Liquid Soaps, Pure-Castile Bar Soaps, Sal Suds Biodegradable Cleaner, Organic Hair Crème, and Organic Sugar Soaps have all been tested and all meet the standard criteria to be classified as “readily biodegradable.” In the lab, this means these products demonstrated more than 60% biodegradation after 28 days. These criteria are so strict that it is reasonable to assume that these products would completely biodegrade within two months in anaerobic water with minimal impact on the environment.

However, even though our products biodegrade quickly it is important to always follow Leave No Trace (LNT) principles in order to minimize any potential disruption to natural ecosystems. LNT guidelines recommend that you use soap at least 200ft. away from any body of water. If you are using a lot of soap, it is best to dig a small hole and bury the grey water in the ground.

Unfortunately, this means that we would not recommend rinsing these products directly into natural water sources. Even a small amount of soap can change the pH of the water and disrupt the habitat of the zillions of creatures that call those waterways home.

Our soaps should be safe to be disposed of on lawns and or in plants, as small amounts of well-diluted soap will not hurt plants, and soapy water is better than no water for plants during a drought. However, it must be applied according to certain guidelines to prevent damage to the plants.

We encourage avoiding contact with edible portions of a plant. Avoid pouring soapy water directly at the base of a plant because it may cause root and stem rot. Instead, pour the soapy water evenly into the soil around the perimeter of each plant. For trees or shrubs, apply soapy water along a drip line. A drip line is an imaginary line, or circle, on the ground that marks where water drips from a plant’s outermost branches.