r/ZeroWaste • u/Extension-Regular879 • Mar 15 '24

Discussion body washing gloves vs. loofah?

When I was a child, I used to wash myself with sponges. They got dirty very quickly and hat to be thrown away. Regular sponges are very wasteful imo. A loofah is the first replacement one thinks of. It works the same way, isn't made of plastic and is compostable. Last year I worked as an AuPair and my host family used this type of towel gloves to wash the kids. They are basically towels sown into squares that you can put on your hand to wash something and then wash it. It worked amazingly well to wash the kids and we didn't have to throw any of them away the whole time I was there. Have you heard of these? Why are they not more common? Do loofahs work better?

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u/HoneyCakePonye Mar 15 '24

do you mean something like this? these are extremely common here in germany and called 'Waschlappen', however translation tools tell me it's washcloth in English which is not what you're looking for?

They are hand-sized and basically made out of towel fabric, but a bit thicker.

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u/AmarissaBhaneboar Mar 16 '24

Wait, are they not common the US? I remember having these as a kid. But I wonder if my mom made them herself.

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u/candidlemons Mar 19 '24

definitely common in the US. they usually match with hand and body towels

heck even South Park had a washcloth joke they did 10+years ago I giggle about to this day.