7 Eco-Friendly Mops To Wipe Away Your (Carbon) Footprints

With so much of our floor cleaning routines littered with non-biodegradable Swiffer pads, it may not seem like it, but sustainable mopping sans disposable, plastic and chemical-laden pads is possible.

In fact, humans have been mopping long before single-use stuff made the chore a little less icky. It’s time we get back to our eco-friendly cleaning roots.

So without further ado, let’s wipe away the conventional in favor of lower-impact cleaning tools.

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Price Range: $30–$35

Adding to their extensive range of cleaning products, The Mighty Mop from Full Circle Home features a wooden mop handle made of bamboo and a foldable recycled plastic head.

This head is compatible with an included microfiber washable pad, rendering it usable as an eco-friendly wet mop or a dry duster. The microfiber pads are soft and nonabrasive, making these some of the best mops for hardwood floors.

If you’re looking for a broom to pick up the bulk before, their Clean Sweep is made of the same materials.

Full Circle Home is a Certified B Corp has all you need for a clean, wholesome home and family. They work with Plastic Bank to become Plastic Neutral, meaning any plastic they do use is offset as well as Global Recycle Standard (GRS) certified recycled. Other products bear certifications like USDA Certified Biobased and GOTS Certified Organic.

Price Range: $25

The Quick Loop Cuban mop attachment is an eco-friendly alternative to Swiffer or conventional disposable mops.

Using one is quick (loop) and easy. Drape a piece of fabric over the dowel and keep it in place using the loop. Because it can hold nearly any fabric as a mop pad (old clothes…hint, hint), it’s perfect for mopping and dusting alike.

Save an average of $144 every year because refills and replacement mop heads aren’t necessary. You’ll just need to buy your own mop handle in the form of a painter’s pole, which you can pick up at any hardware store.

Price Range: $23–$25

Yocada makes two industrial-quality mops for both home or commercial mopping purposes. By selling mop head replacements individually, they’re encouraging you to keep using your mop handle.

For a heavy-duty option, check out the Sponge Mop. While the mop head doesn’t appear to feature an eco-friendly sponge, it holds a lot of water and will last many mopping days, making it one of the best eco-friendly Swiffer wet pad alternatives.

The cotton String mop head is versatile and handy for cleaning floors of all kinds, ranging from laminate to marble to hardwood, ceramic, concrete, or bathroom tiles. Its head is 100% cotton, so once its cleaning days are over, you can compost it provided you’ve only used it with natural, chemical-free cleaning agents.

Price Range: $45

“Imagine if today was more like the good old days. When products were made to last and landfills weren’t stuffed with plastic remnants of junk.” That’s the world Fuller Brush Co. started making products for in 1906 and the world they’re hoping to bring around once more.

The Fuller Brush‘s traditionally designed plastic-free mop offers superior cleaning, high absorbency, and a durable steel handle to last for life. Because the mop holds four times its original weight, it makes the cleaning process a lot more efficient.

Their sustainable mops have been made in the same family-owned factory in Kansas for 50 years.

Electronic materials are especially hard on the environment through the creation of virgin plastics and the extraction of key minerals from the earth to make electronic components.

That’s why the most eco-friendly appliances are pre-owned ones that mitigate e-waste, demand for raw materials, and pollution from manufacturing new. You can find a refurbished steam mops on:

• Amazon Renewed: You’ll find secondhand mop alternatives to popular brands like Shark, Bissell, and DOKER selling at heavily reduced prices.

• eBay Refurbished: All certified refurbished steam mops from eBay are “professionally inspected, cleaned, and refurbished by the manufacturer or a manufacturer-approved vendor to meet manufacturer specifications”.

Price Range: $15

ZeroWasteStore.com offers two eco-friendly floor cleaners: a liquid and a powder.

The All-Purpose Spray by the Home Farm is a sustainable floor cleaner (suitable for any surface) made from a blend of 100% non-toxic organic oils. The Multi-Use Home Cleaner is similar, but in powdered form. It can either be used as a zero waste laundry detergent, dish soap, or mixed with water to clean surfaces.

Both are certified Climate Neutral, vegan, and cruelty-free.

As a trusted brand for sustainable living products, ZWS’ mission is to reduce the negative impact that waste disposal has on this Earth and its inhabitants. All products are plastic-free with 100% biodegradable or reusable packaging. Shipping emissions are also fully offset and a portion of the proceeds support their 1% For the Planet membership.

Price Range: $19–$31

We’ve talked a lot of trash about Swiffer, but if you have one, keep using it! The only thing we’d recommend substituting are the non-biodegradable Swiffer pads. The 100% cotton reusable mop pads by Saged Home are designed to fit a 10 x 4.5 inch Swiffer. The mop cloths can be used and reused—simply toss them in the washer and dryer.

This product is plastic-free, Climate Neutral, made in the USA, and from a woman-owned brand. Because Saged Home sells on ZeroWasteStore.com, this product reaps those sustainability benefits, too.

Is Swiffer wasteful?

Considering single-use Swiffer pads aren’t biodegradable, compostable, or widely recyclable, yes. Instead, they’re made of petroleum layers (polyester and sometimes polyurethane foam) that have no good and end-of-life option.

One pad often isn’t enough to fully clean your floors, meaning you’re throwing away multiple with each mopping.

Swiffer’s wet pads are full of other chemicals, too.

You can recycle used mop and duster pads through Swiffer’s free recycling program through TerraCycle, but few people utilize it or even know it exists.

Instead, we choose zero waste cleaning products to help mop away some of the mess caused by our consumption.

Here are things we look for in zero waste mopping equipment:

Materials:

Truly zero waste mopping means natural materials that not only don’t require fossil fuels, but generally mean compostability at the end of the mop’s life.

We looked for mop handles made out of wood or bamboo, and mop heads made from organic cotton, recycled cotton, or even just plain cotton mops (when the alternative is something single-use).

If it’s not natural, it should be durable. We made exceptions for lifelong reusable components like handles made of metal.

Supply chain and green business practices:

In many cases, a clean floor doesn’t exactly translate to a transparent supply chain, so we hope to see more about this from brands going forward.

Many of these mop-makers have started to work on cleaning up our planet, through the use of renewable energy, carbon neutrality, plastic neutrality, or programs to support environmental organizations.

Having said that, there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to truly transparent (complex) supply chains and reassurances against greenwashing.

Certifications: B Corporation, Climate Neutral Certified

A zero waste mopping routine helps keep our planet clean, too. We know this doesn’t make mopping any easier, but at least it can be done more sustainably (and without any eco-guilt).

Remember, the most sustainable mop is the one you already own, especially if you can pair your mop with reusable pads. But if you’re starting to question whether that old mop is actually making things any cleaner, upgrade to a reusable or natural mop alternative.

Do you have any green-clean freaks in your life (or maybe someone who really should clean their floor more often)? Drop a subtle hint by sharing this list of eco mops, so we can all wipe away our dirty (carbon) footprints.