The Shower Curtain Switch That Could Seriously Benefit Your Bathroom

Plastic shower curtains and liners can come with serious drawbacks that might make you want to throw yours out for good. Despite being a staple in many households — as a budget-friendly and highly effective choice for keeping water off of your bathroom floor — most plastic shower curtain liners are made from polyvinyl chloride or PVC. This type of material is made from unsustainable fossil fuels and can have a direct impact on your health. That's because it releases volatile organic compounds, otherwise known as VOCs. When you open up a new PVC shower curtain or shower curtain liner, the material emits these VOCs over the course of several weeks through a process known as off-gassing. To keep the toxic chemicals out of your bathroom, try swapping out your current shower curtain for one that's made from an organic material, such as hemp.

Hemp shower curtains are environmentally friendly and naturally resistant to mold and mildew. Though they require regular cleaning, they're actually quite easy to wash and dry. It's a relatively simple change, and getting rid of your vinyl shower curtain is actually a fantastic way to bring eco-conscious design into your home without spending a fortune. If you're looking for another way to reduce the amount of harmful plastics and chemicals in other places within your home, then you might want to ditch these plastic kitchen items for safer alternatives as well.

As a material, hemp is considerably more environmentally-friendly than other fabrics, such as cotton. That's because the crop it's made from uses less water and pesticides but has a higher yield per square acre. Hemp fabric is fully biodegradable and significantly more durable than other fabric shower curtain alternatives. If your bathroom follows a natural aesthetic or biophilic design, with organic browns and greens, then a hemp curtain will also fit right in with your existing decor. 

To care for it, you simply need to stick it in the wash every few weeks at the same temperature as your bed sheets and towels. Hemp shower curtains are resistant to mold and other forms of bacteria, but only if you properly dry them and avoid leaving the fabric in contact with the wet surface of your tub. The main drawback to hemp shower curtains is the material's limited water resistance. However, this shouldn't be too much of an issue if you wash the curtain regularly. You can always apply waterproofing spray to the fabric or treat it with beeswax if you're concerned about mildew. Hemp can also shrink in the dryer, so you'll always need to air dry it. If you'd rather not switch to a fabric shower curtain but you want to get rid of your PVC shower curtain, consider getting PEVA instead since it also has significantly fewer chemicals than traditional vinyl liners.