By Tracey Bailey, Founder of Biome
If there’s one heart-warming thing I noticed in 2025, it was a wave of sentiment that we’ve had enough of corporate tactics, and we’re drawing a line! We've had enough of:
→ misleading front-of-pack claims
→ complicated “solutions” that don’t fix the core problem
→ everyday products that contain chemicals we never knowingly agreed to live with.
In 2025, I saw sustainable living being less about chasing the next new thing, and more about removing what should not have been there in the first place — excess plastic, careless ingredients, short-lived products, and hidden harm.
Let’s dive into the 10 sustainable solutions that we saw inspiring Biome customers in 2025. I wonder if any of these will resonate with your experience too?
1. Plastic-Free Cleaning Concentrate Bars
The problem:
Plastic bans expanded, but refill systems didn’t quite become the simple answer many of us hoped for. Instead of fewer containers, homes often ended up with more — refill pouches to return, special bottles, subscriptions, and brand-specific systems.
Sustainability started to feel complicated again.
We absolutely support refilling. In fact, Biome pioneered refill and DIY ingredient bars in our stores long before it was mainstream. It works beautifully when you have access to it. But many people don’t.
Why this solution:
Cleaning concentrate bars remove the problem rather than managing it.
They come with no plastic, no palm oil, no synthetic surfactants, and you add water at home. That matters because most liquid cleaners are 80–90% water — shipped around the planet in heavy plastic bottles.
These bars reduce waste, lower transport emissions, take up almost no space, and are far gentler on skin and waterways.
Top picks:
Biome Laundry Liquid Concentrate Bar
Biome Dishwash Block
Biome Bathroom Cleaning Spray Concentrate Bars
2. PFAS-Free Living
The problem:
In 2025, PFAS stopped being an abstract science issue and became something people were recognising in their everyday life — in frying pans, air fryers, school uniforms, food packaging, outdoor gear, and even water.
These “forever chemicals” were never designed with long-term human or environmental health in mind, yet quietly became normalised.
With bans on some PFAS around the world, including a ban on PFOA in Australia in July 2025, many felt understandably angry. Why PFAS was allowed for so long without our informed consent? And when the rest of the PFAS be banned also?
Why this solution:
There are still many PFAS in use, but they are not necessary for things to work well.
Cookware can perform beautifully without toxic coatings. Food storage can be safe without chemical treatments.
Choosing PFAS-free alternatives isn’t radical — it’s simply refusing something that should never have been there in the first place.
Top PFAS-free solutions:
Solidteknics wrought iron and stainless steel cookware
Patch PFAS-free bamboo bandages
Beeswax food wraps
Stainless steel containers, and glass containers
3. Stepping Off the Cosmetic Consumption Treadmill
The problem:
Do you feel like the choices of cosmetics and personal care has reached saturation point?
Every week brought a new social media trend, a new serum with the pseudo-scientific ingredient of the month, a new Korean beauty cream for a hyper-specific body part, and a new colour palette.
Shopping centres were filled with beauty stores offering walls of choice that promise difference but deliver near-identical formulas (mostly all petrochemicals and palm-derived).
At the same time, skincare routines became increasingly aggressive, leaving many with irritated, sensitised skin, particularly teens and even tweens.
Why this solution:
Exhausted by the treadmill, many of us looked for ways to get off!
Instead of chasing novelty, people are looking to choose fewer products with clearer, more simple ingredients — and where the hype statement on the front actually matches what the product is made from.
Top picks:
Biome CastorGuard multi-purpose balm
Biome Jojoba Oil
Deodorant pastes in tins
4. Walking Away From Bottled Water
The problem:
While bottled water sales continued to rise in the mainstream, environmentally aware households increasingly moved in the opposite direction (kudos to you!).
Single-use bottles remain one of the most visible forms of unnecessary plastic waste — used briefly, lasting for centuries, with only a small percentage truly recycled, and most ending up in landfill or polluting our precious oceans.
At the same time, microplastics continued to be found in the bottled water itself!
Why this solution:
Rather than buying water in plastic, more people chose to improve the water they already had coming out the tap.
Home filtration and reusable bottles are replacing thousands of bottles over time — plus it is much cheaper way to buy water, it reduces waste, and improves taste.
We given an honourable mention here also to home sparkling water makers such as Sodastream. Converting your kitchen tap water into soda and fizzy drinks is massively more cost, plastic waste, and emissions-efficient than extracting precious water from Fiji or France and shipping it around the world!
Top solutions:
Reusable filter bottles
All drink bottles
Bench-top water purifiers and water filter jugs
Whole house and under-sink water filters
5. The Return of Real Soap
The problem:
Somewhere along the way, we were convinced that soap in a plastic bottle was more hygienic, more effective, and more “modern” than a simple bar.
Supermarket shelves were packed with body washes and hand soaps — largely water, synthetic detergents and fragrance, and packaged in yet another plastic bottle.
For many users, these products also became a source of irritation, dryness, and sensitivity, even though they were marketed as gentle and nourishing.
Why this solution:
Simple bar soaps and liquid castile soap clean hands and bodies thoroughly without unnecessary ingredients or packaging. They last longer, take up less space, and quietly remove another plastic bottle from everyday life.
Progress isn’t always something new, it can be revisiting what worked before the marketers got hold of it.
Top picks:
Palm-oil-free soap bars
Dish soap bars
6. Food Storage That Replaces Soft Plastics
The problem:
When the soft-plastic recycling program REDcycle collapsed, many Australians were shocked to learn that most of what we thought was being recycled never really was.
Cling wrap, sandwich bags, snack packets, produce sleeves, and single-serve packaging dominate everyday food routines — used for minutes, then destined for landfill or the environment.
At the same time, supermarkets leaned harder into ready-made meals and convenience foods wrapped in layers of plastic.
Why this solution:
Rather than trying to recycle something that was never designed to be recycled properly, we saw more people being very mindful of avoiding plastic packaging and single use wrap.
Maybe I do have 10 minutes to wash and chop some carrots, rather than buying them pre-chopped in plastic tray that will stick around for a few hundred years??
With reliable reusable containers, produce bags and reusable wraps, it's easier to buy loose produce, keep it fresher for longer, pack lunches, and store leftovers.
Top solutions:
Veggie Saver produce bags
Beeswax food wraps
Stainless steel containers, and glass containers
7. Back-to-Basics Cleaning
The problem:
Supermarket cleaning aisles were packed with specialised products (for the bathroom, the kitchen, toilet, floors, glass, mould...) — heavily fragranced, and harsh chemicals. And, although ingredients are rarely disclosed, the formulas are almost identical!
Also, these cleaners can cause headaches, skin irritation, and breathing discomfort, despite being marketed as fresh and safe.
Why this solution:
Thanks in large part to social media (it does have some virtues!) word is spreading about the harm, as well as helping people rediscover the simplicity of basic ingredients. Reminding us all that these more basic concoctions can handle most cleaning tasks effectively — without fumes, irritation, and without an assortment of products.
Oxygen bleach, castile soap, clove oil and other essential oils, white vinegar and bi-carb can replace dozens of specialised products.
Top basics:
Oxygen bleach
Clove oil for mould
Castile soap
8. Buy-Once Household Hardware
The problem:
Cheap household items are designed to fail. It's called "planned obsolescence". After all, if you only bought a product once, and never again, how would companies keep growing their profits??
Plastic pegs snap in the sun, non-stick coatings wear off, flimsy tools bend or break, and many everyday products are treated as disposable by default.
Individually it doesn’t seem like much, but over years it becomes a constant cycle of replacement, expense, and waste.
Why this solution:
Well-made items change that pattern entirely.
When something is built to last for years — or even generations — you stop replacing it, stop throwing it away, and often stop thinking about it altogether.
It’s sustainability that happens quietly in the background.
Top solutions:
Stainless steel wire pegs
Solidteknics cookware
Stainless steel kitchenwares
9. Choosing Australian-Made
The problem:
2025 saw disconcerting changes and instability in geo-politics, and global supply chains became increasingly fragile. Coupled with a flood of poor quality, poor transparency products from Temu, Alibaba and Amazon, we are feeling more disconnected from the origin of products, how they were made, and who is benefiting.
Long transport routes also mean higher emissions built into everyday purchases.
Why this solution:
Buying Australian-made means fewer transport miles, better transparency, and direct support for small local producers doing things thoughtfully.
In 2025, choosing local wasn’t about nationalism — it was about being responsible and building resilience.
Top performers:
Australian made gifts
Australian made toys
Australian made socks
All Australian made products (1,500+ plus products!)
10. Buying Less Still Matters Most
The problem:
As sustainability became even more mainstream, it also became more commercial. It was easy to feel bombarded with messages telling us to buy into a greener life.
Why this solution:
The most powerful change remains the simplest.
Before buying something new, pause and ask:
Do I actually need this?
Making do, repairing, borrowing and buying second-hand first quietly reduces consumption far more than any new product ever could.
For Biome, this balance of running a viable business while encouraging people to buy less has always been the key challenge of what we do!
We hope you saw your thoughtful actions in some of these solutions. Thank you for questioning, and quietly making better choices every day.
— Tracey 🌿
