Eco-Friendly Products We Love

Our RV came with a single stage under the sink water filter similar to this one. It's effective a two stage system since we also filter water as it comes into the RV. You can also get two, three, and four stage filters for under the sink if you want. We've been happy with this and it worked well enough for us to rely on it in Mexico. You heard that right, we did NOT buy bottled water in Mexico.

A water pitcher with a filter is an affordable option. This 5-cup Brita pitcher is small enough to work in most RV refrigerators but there are many brands and size options out there. Pick the one that fits your space and meets your needs. These types of pitchers start at about $15.

If you've got fat cash and counter space, get a Berkey. Our friends The Motorhome Experiment love theirs and it also passed the test in Mexico. They come in various sizes but the Travel Berkey or the Berkey Light are probably most practical for RV use. They hold 1 1/2 gallons and 2 3/4 gallons.

We each carry a vacuum insulated bottle pretty much wherever we go. The liquid inside stays cold (or hot) for a long time! It's so refreshing on a warm day. There are many choices out there, but we both prefer a larger, wide-mouth bottle. Kevin carries a Hydroflask and I have a GSI Microlite. 

When we first hit the road, I was allergic to glass items and only brought plastic storage containers. Of course, they stain easily and eventually I gave in and replaced a couple with glass. The brand we have is Luminarc. We picked them up at a co-op. These pictured are similar. I like the vent in the lid and many containers don't have that.

We cook mostly from scratch so finding a solution for plastic produce bags was a must. Sometimes I do without but the grocery checker will appreciate if you don't come up with a cart full of loose produce that they have to chase around. These mesh produce bags are awesome and come with the tare weight right on the tag. We've had them for several years and other than some stains (hi, beets) they show no signs of wear.

Many people are replacing plastic cling wrap with beeswax wraps. We don't use bee products so I've been searching for something similar that would be vegan friendly. We finally found this Ukonserve velcro wrap in a co-op. It doesn't fit over an open bowl but does stand in for many plastic wrap tasks. We use it for wrapping sandwiches and leftover avocado halves. It's easy to clean and has held up beautifully.

Cut down your use of foil and parchment paper with reusable silicon baking mats. They come in many sizes and shapes from standard half sheet cookie pans to round cake pans. You can even get them for your toaster oven. Bonus: it makes clean-up much easier. 

We consider grill mats a camping essential. Use them on your own grill and you won't have to scrub it constantly. Use it on campground grills because you have no idea what's been on that grill. Again, using a grill mat will cut down on your use of foil and they clean up pretty easily.

If you have a few open bowls without lids that you use regularly, these silicon stretch lids can help you avoid using plastic wrap. You can also use them on some fruits.

Because we boondock so much, we still use coffee filters. They don't require water to clean up and water is at a premium when you don't have hook-ups. But when we had our sticks and bricks, we had a reusable coffee filter like this. They come in different sizes and the cone shaped one too.

With an Aeropress coffee maker, you need a filter per cup instead of one per 12-cup pot. Of course, there are reusable filters for it, too. We have these and use them sometimes when we're in extreme low-power mode.

If you enjoy cold brewed coffee, it's really easy to make at home. The Toddy makes it dead simple and with its reusable filter it creates no trash except the used grounds. And those are great for your garden! We love ours but sometimes it leads to too much coffee consumption.

Some municipalities hand out low flow shower heads for free. And they're usually terrible. But they don't have to be! We have an Oxygenics shower head like this one in our RV. We find that the water pressure it puts out is better than most campground showers. Limiting your water use in an RV means you can stay off of utilities longer. In a sticks and bricks it can save you money and it helps the environment.

If you'd rather have a laundry-specific product for washing clothing, you can make a better choice than those giant plastic containers. Biokleen is just one company that packages their non-toxic concentrated laundry soap in minimal recycled packaging.

If you prefer the convenience of laundry soap pods to liquid, we really like Grab Green products. We've used these and found them effective even on dirty RVer clothes. The lavender scented one is quite nice. 

Recycled toilet paper is pretty easy to find these days. The one we buy the most is Seventh Generation but we also pick up the store brand sometimes. We've tried bamboo toilet paper but there was something weird about it that we didn't like.

If we still lived in a house, we would rely more on reusable alternatives to paper towels. But in an RV, storing the cloths, packing our hamper with the dirty cloths, and the extra laundry involved when you don't have a washer and dryer at your disposable makes them impractical for us. So we do the next best thing and use recycled paper towels, unbleached when we can find them. Again, we often buy Seventh Generation or the store brand, when available.