The Top Line:

byHumankind byHumankind mouthwash tablets tablets are the zero-waste design to dramatically reduce the use of plastic packaging created by traditional liquid mouth rinses. Plus, the amount of energy required to transport the tablets is far less than heavy liquids, from factory to your home.

Your switch to tablets can reduce the need for 12 to 29 plastic bottles per year, but the change comes at a cost that can be $40-$50 more expensive per year. Given, the dramatic impact on tablet mouth rinses, we will keep using this zero-waste option until we find ones we like a little better.

The Breakdown:

• Cost & Products: $10 for 60 mouthwash tablets in a plastic, refillable container or a paper tube for refills.

• How ‘Clean’ Is This? No alcohol, limited and all-natural ingredients, starting with just baking soda and grape-derived tartaric acid.

• Packaging: So light! It depends on what you choose during checkout. The tablets can come either in a plastic, refillable container that is meant to be reused for life or a paper tube. Since we wanted to perhaps use pretty glass or other thrift store options in the future, we opted for the paper tube.

  The paper tube is not recyclable, but it can be composted both industrially and at home.
  The shipment came in a minimal paper, recycled envelope with some paper padding. We liked how lightweight it was.

• Purchasing & Shipping: Clean design, but some internal links can be buggy. Shopping and shipping were pretty straightforward and very fast for us.

• Good to Know: Refill is the name of byHumankind’s game. The company tries to use limited ingredients, with a heavy emphasis on plastic reduction via packaging.

• Coupons: None that we know of, and subscriptions does not help you save on items but shipping is always free.

• What’s Your Impact? By choosing the paper option, and depending on how often you swish, you are eliminating 12 to 29 plastic bottles from production per year by switching to a tablet mouth rinse. Plus, liquid rinses are heavy and need to be transported from production to your house, using up energy along the way. We really like eliminating this step in our oral hygiene routine.

The Efficacy:

Context: We want fresh breath! We compared byHumankind mouthwash with breath-freshening rinses that we’ve used in the past.

• The tablet takes a minute or two of time to dissolve, so we plop one in while brushing or washing our face so it’s ready to go right.

• Even though each color has its own “flavor,” we can’t really tell what they are individually.

• We were used to the harsh rinses of other mainstream brands, so it took a few rinses to get accustomed to the subtle taste.

• There is no stinging from the alcohol or puckering from the strong ingredients: just baking soda that helps freshen breath.

The Cost:

Context: We assumed that you rinsed twice daily in the costs below. For plastic bottles, we gave both the smaller option of 16.9oz and the medium of 33.8oz.

• byHumankind Mouthwash Tablets
  $10 | Yearly Cost: $122

• Crest Pro-Health Mouthwash, 16.9oz or 33.8oz
  $3.99 for 16.9oz | Yearly cost: $115 OR $5.99 for 33.8oz | Yearly Cost: $86

• Listerine Mouthwash, 16.9oz or 33.8oz
  $3.99 for 16.9oz | Yearly cost: $115 OR $5.39 for 33.8oz | Yearly Cost: $78

• Georganics Mouthwash Tablets
  $14 | Yearly Cost: $57

Money Thoughts: Yikes…. byHumankind is by far the most expensive option when it comes to mouthwash, coming it at $122 per year for rinsing twice a day. While we like eliminating all of those plastic bottles (and, it is a lot of plastic), we will be hoping for a more reasonably priced option.

The Good:

✔ Limited ingredients, all derived from natural sources

✔ Super light and limited packaging - the most drastic reduction in plastic use of our reviewed products so far, up to 29 plastic bottles per year

✔ Lightweight means less energy is used in shipping the product from manufacturing facility to your home

✔ No stinging or strong chemicals

The Bad:

✗ Even though we believe it gives us fresh breath, the taste is uninspiring if you are used to very strong rinses

✗ Most expensive per use/annual option versus the liquid mouth rinses

Our Recommendation:
Should you buy it? Probably not; Georganics Mouthwash is way cheaper (& we reviewed it!). Also, if you don’t like the strong taste of the leading brand rinses, then this type tablet form mouth freshener may be enough. byHumankind is the most expensive option we reviewed. However, in terms of the environment, when going the tablet route, the overall impact of shipping tablets versus liquids is staggering with both plastic reduction and reduction in energy use associated with shipping.

We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!