Zero Waste Tips: Dr.Bronner's Soaps
Mary Lou Lindegren & Posy Mckinney | Published on 8/29/2025
Dr. Bronner’s was founded in 1948 by Emanuel Bronner, a third-generation master soap maker from a German-Jewish soap making family. Dr. Bonner’s is still family-owned and run and honors its founder’s vision by making socially and environmentally responsible products of the highest quality and dedicating their profits to help make a better world.
The soaps are made using traditional methods with natural ingredients. Only the purest organic and fair trade ingredients are used with most products vegan and certified to USDA National Organic Program standards. There are no synthetic preservatives or foaming agents. Natural ingredients take the place of synthetic chemicals.
Dr. Bronner’s works with suppliers and their farmer’s worldwide - in Ghana, India, Samoa and Sri Lanka - to improve their livelihoods and work to regenerate soil, focusing on education and practices that build up soil fertility and organic matter. These techniques include crop rotation, cover cropping and composting which increase yields and profits for small farmers and also aid local communities’ resiliency to heat waves and storms.
Dr. Bronner’s exclusively uses 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) polyethylene (PET) plastic bottles for all of their liquid and pump soaps. By turning used plastic bottle into new plastic bottle they help conserve resources, reduce landfill and capitalize on the energy already invested in making existing plastic bottles. Bottle-to-bottle recycling helps close the loop and results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. Bronner’s also offers an eco-friendly option to refill your post-consumer recycled bottles or other containers for cleaning and personal care. The refill carton uses 82% less plastic to help you reduce your plastic footprint. For shipping boxes, they use only 100% PCR corrugate.
Here is what they are doing to reduce waste generation, water use and energy consumption at their manufacturing plant in Vista:
*. Solar panels in the employee parking lot generate a significant portion of electricity used
*. They’ve developed a system that reduces water use for washing out filling machines by
85%
*. They are piloting methods to clean gray water which will allow for reuse
*. Drought tolerant native species adapted to the San Diego climate have replaced grass
and tropical landscaping on their site
*. They have committed to reducing waste sent to the landfill to one dumpster per month.
Waste is diverted to be recycled or composted.
At Dr. Bonner’s the environmental footprint is accurately measured - total energy consumption (electric, natural gas, fossil fuel, propane), water consumption, waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions. These measurements allow them to benchmark and track their progress as they decrease their carbon footprint to become a near zero-waste operation..