It’s likely to be our eternal quest to try and be as friendly to the planet as we can, and while the population keeps growing astronomically and there are plenty of assholes out there who don’t give a flying shit about their carbon footprint or recycling, for those of us who do care – finding ways to “do better” is always on our minds. Enter Simple skincare, who just announced biodegradable face wipes.

Face wipes have long been a bone of contention when it comes to environmental friendliness. For a long time, most weren’t biodegradable at all. In fact, many wipes can take decades to biodegrade. Simple’s new ones however take just 42 days to compost – according to Simple, that’s faster than oak leaves, pine needles

and wood fibers.

Tess Giordimania, Simple Skincare’s Brand Manager for Australia and New Zealand, says the move comes in response to their customers wanting the ease of a cleansing wipe without the massive environmental impact.

“At Simple, we understand that face wipes have an impact on our planet, we wanted to lead the way and create biodegradable face wipes for the mass market. We know many consumers want the convenience of using a face wipe and don’t want to have to choose between their preferred facial cleansing format and being kind to the planet – which is why we’ve added this new option to our range.”

Simple may be the first mass-market brand to make this move, but there are other options on shelf for more sustainable makeup cleansing options. Aussie brand WotNot has some epic face wipes that are made of 100% biodegradable cloth:

And Face Halo began as an alternative to face wipes, using fibre strands to remove makeup with simply water, allowing the pads to be reused around 200 times.

Other alternatives are – olive oil, which when applied to dry skin can remove makeup (even waterproof mascara), and cleansing oils (there are loads on market but my personal favourite is Shu Uemura’s and Josie Maran’s).

No time like the present to make your skincare routine more sustainable, no?