Non-Toxic Baby Wipes: 7 Plastic-Free Picks That Skip the Plastic Fibers
This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through our links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We never claim to have tested products we have not used, and we check materials and listings before we link anything.
Most parents go through thousands of baby wipes in the first two years, and most of those wipes are quietly made of plastic. Conventional nonwoven wipes are usually spun from polyester or polypropylene, the same petroleum-based fibers as a fleece jacket, which means every wipe is a small piece of plastic fabric pressed against a baby’s skin and then thrown away to sit in a landfill for a very long time. Non-toxic baby wipes fix both halves of that problem at once: the cloth itself is made from plant fibers like viscose or cotton instead of plastic, and the lotion is short, simple, and free of fragrance and harsh preservatives.
This guide rounds up the seven wipes we would actually buy, five disposable and two reusable, all from name brands, all sold on Amazon, and all checked at the fiber level rather than the marketing level. Where a popular brand did not qualify, we say so and explain why.
The short answer: for non-toxic baby wipes, choose a wipe whose cloth is 100 percent viscose (from bamboo or wood pulp) or cotton, with a short water-based ingredient list. Our most bought all-rounder is The Honest Company Clean Conscious Wipes (4.8 stars, about 56,100 ratings), and the simplest ingredient list belongs to WaterWipes (4.7 stars, about 88,200 ratings), which carries one honest caveat we cover in its section below. Whatever you buy, bin it: no baby wipe should ever be flushed, including the ones marketed as flushable.
Get the Weekly Swaps
One short email a week: the newest microplastics studies in plain English, plus the swaps that are actually worth your money. Join free and we will send you our room-by-room microplastic checklist to get you started.
Get Our Free Room-by-Room Microplastic ChecklistJoin the newsletter and get the checklist free →
Are baby wipes made of plastic?
Yes, most conventional ones are. The typical baby wipe is a nonwoven cloth spun from polyester (PET) or polypropylene (PP), sometimes blended with plant fibers, and that plastic portion does not biodegrade. The European Union has treated this as settled since 2021: under the Single-Use Plastics Directive (EU) 2019/904 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2151, wet wipes containing plastic sold in the EU have had to carry a “PLASTIC IN PRODUCT” warning with the turtle pictogram since July 3, 2021. Pure viscose and lyocell are explicitly not classified as plastic under EU guidance, because regenerated cellulose is a natural polymer that is not chemically modified in the finished fiber.
The United Kingdom is going further. The Environmental Protection (Wet Wipes Containing Plastic) Regulations 2025 for England were made on November 18, 2025, and the ban on selling plastic-containing wet wipes to consumers takes effect in spring 2027, with Wales in force from December 18, 2026. The reason is disposal as much as materials: Water UK has put wet wipes at 93 percent of the material found in UK sewer blockages, and Defra monitoring found an average of 20 wet wipes per 100 metres of UK beach. A plastic wipe that gets flushed or littered does not go away; a viscose one at least can break down, which brings us to the evidence.
Does viscose actually break down?
Yes, and far faster than plastic fibers, based on the best direct comparison we have. In a study from Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers published in PLOS ONE in 2023 (Zambrano et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0284681), natural and regenerated cellulose fibers including viscose, lyocell, and modal biodegraded completely in about 35 days in marine conditions, while PET, PP, and PLA showed no visible biodegradation over 428 days. The study also found the catch that matters for wipe shopping: cellulose and plastic blends kept their plastic portion intact, which is why a wipe that is only partly plant-based is not the same thing as a plastic-free wipe. You can read the study at doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284681.
One honest nuance: biodegradable does not mean impact-free. A University of Plymouth and University of Bath BIO-PLASTIC-RISK study reported in November 2024 (lead author Dr Winnie Courtene-Jones) found viscose microfibers caused higher earthworm mortality than polyester in lab tests. Plant fibers are still the better end-of-life bet, and reusables beat both, but the right habit with any wipe is the bin, never the toilet.
The 7 picks at a glance
| Pick | Cloth material | Amazon rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| WaterWipes Sensitive+ (720 ct) | 100% viscose | 4.7 stars, about 88,200 ratings | Newborns, simplest ingredients |
| Honest Company Clean Conscious (288 ct) | Plant-based viscose | 4.8 stars, about 56,100 ratings | Best all-rounder |
| DYPER Baby Wipes (224 ct) | 100% bamboo viscose | 4.4 stars, 986 ratings | Compost program fans |
| Eco by Naty Aloe Vera (672 ct) | FSC plant-based fibers | 4.3 stars, 742 ratings | Certified compostable |
| Caboo Baby Wipes (216 ct) | Bamboo viscose | 4.6 stars | MADE SAFE ingredients |
| OsoCozy Flannel Cloth Wipes (15 pk) | 100% cotton flannel, reusable | 4.5 stars, 3,402 ratings | Zero-waste homes |
| Esembly Wipe Ups (12 pk) | Organic cotton, reusable | 4.4 stars, 425 ratings | Organic reusable upgrade |
Browse Our Full Amazon StorefrontAll our baby wipe picks in one place →
The picks, one by one
1. WaterWipes Sensitive+ Newborn and Baby Wipes
WaterWipes Sensitive+ is the wipe that built this category: a 100 percent viscose cloth wet with 99.9 percent purified water and a drop of grapefruit seed extract, and nothing else on the ingredient list. It is EWG Verified, the fiber is plastic-free, and at 4.7 stars across about 88,200 ratings it is one of the most reviewed baby products on Amazon. For a newborn whose skin reacts to everything, that two-ingredient simplicity is the whole appeal.
The honest caveat, because you deserve it in the pick and not in a footnote: in June 2025 a class action (Merlo v. WaterWipes, filed June 2, 2025 in the Northern District of California) alleged that the “plastic-free” wipes contain significant levels of microplastics, citing third-party lab testing. Those are allegations in a complaint, not findings by a court or a regulator, and the viscose fiber itself is not a plastic fiber under the EU definition above. Still, if the lawsuit makes you want a pick with no open questions, the Honest wipes below are the alternative we would buy. The other trade-off is packaging: the wipes are plastic-free, the soft pouch they ship in is not.
2. The Honest Company Clean Conscious Wipes
Honest Clean Conscious Wipes are our best all-rounder: plant-based viscose cloth, only seven ingredients with water at over 99 percent, EWG Verified, and recognized by the National Eczema Association. Honest says the cloth disintegrates in about eight weeks in home-compost testing (Modified ISO 20200), and the directions on the pack say plainly: do not flush. At 4.8 stars across about 56,100 ratings, it is also the highest rated wipe in this guide.
Trade-offs: never compost a wipe soiled with human waste (Honest’s own instruction), so in practice most used wipes still go in the bin, where the viscose advantage is slower breakdown rather than no breakdown. The lotion also contains preservatives that a two-ingredient wipe avoids, which is the price of a wipe that stays fresh in a resealable pack for months.
3. DYPER Baby Wipes
DYPER Baby Wipes are made from 100 percent bamboo viscose, with a 99 percent-plus water formula, EWG Verified status, and a USDA BioPreferred rating of 95 percent. DYPER is a B Corp, and its REDYPER program takes used wipes back for industrial composting in the cities it serves, which is the most serious end-of-life system any wipe brand in this guide offers. The rating is 4.4 stars, from a smaller pool of 986 ratings, so weigh it accordingly.
Trade-offs: that smaller review pool, and the composting story only works if you actually use the mail-back or curbside program; a DYPER wipe in a landfill behaves like any other viscose wipe. If you are building a lower-plastic nursery, our non-toxic kids bedding guide covers the sleep side of the same room.
4. Eco by Naty Aloe Vera Baby Wipes
Eco by Naty Aloe Vera Wipes come from a Swedish brand that has made plant-based baby care since 1994. The cloth is FSC-certified, 100 percent plant-based, and plastic-free; the lotion is 98 percent purified water with aloe and chamomile waters, and the ingredients carry COSMOS Natural certification. The wipes are certified compostable, independently tested to break down in about 12 weeks. The rating is 4.3 stars from 742 ratings, the lowest in this guide but still at our bar, and the review pool is small enough that we flag it plainly.
Trade-offs: US stock on this listing has been intermittent, so if it shows no available offer when you click, the Honest or Caboo picks are the closest substitutes. And compostable never means compost the soiled ones.
5. Caboo Baby Wipes
Caboo Baby Wipes are the bamboo pick from the brand known for tree-free paper products: bamboo viscose cloth, a short ingredient list with aloe and vitamin E, MADE SAFE certified ingredients, and EWG Verified status. Amazon buyers rate them 4.6 stars. Caboo uses bamboo that is not a panda food source, a small detail the brand is right to state, since bamboo sourcing questions come up every time we cover the fiber.
Trade-offs: some owners find the wipes thinner and quicker to dry out than the big brands, and more prone to tearing on a big job, so you may use two where WaterWipes would use one. The brand’s compostability language is a brand claim rather than a certification on this listing, so treat them as biodegradable-fiber wipes, bin them, and do not count on a compost timeline.
6. OsoCozy Flannel Cloth Wipes (reusable)
OsoCozy Flannel Cloth Wipes are the zero-waste answer: a 15-pack of 8 by 8 inch wipes in 100 percent cotton flannel, unbleached, rated 4.5 stars across 3,402 ratings. You wet them with water or a simple wipe solution, use, and wash them with your regular laundry or a cloth diaper load. No fiber is shed into a landfill, no pack is thrown away weekly, and cotton flannel gets softer with washing instead of wearing out.
Trade-offs: laundry is the product. Cloth wipes mean a wet bag by the changing table and a small stash to buy up front (most families rotate two to three dozen). They are also less grab-and-go for travel, which is why many cloth families keep one disposable pick from this list for the car. Pair them with the glass bottles in our glass baby bottles guide and you have covered two big plastic sources in a baby’s first year.
7. Esembly Wipe Ups Organic Cotton Cloth Wipes (reusable)
Esembly Wipe Ups are the organic upgrade: 12 generously sized wipes in GOTS-certified organic cotton, OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified, from a brand that gives through 1% For The Planet. They are rated 4.4 stars from 425 ratings, a smaller pool that reflects a smaller, newer brand rather than unhappy buyers. The dual texture that reviewers mention is genuinely useful: one side grips, the other side finishes.
Trade-offs: same laundry reality as OsoCozy, a smaller pack size, and you supply your own wipe solution or plain warm water, which takes a week to become a habit. If organic certification on the fiber itself is your deciding factor, these beat OsoCozy; if budget per wipe matters more, OsoCozy wins. Both beat every disposable on this page for lifetime waste.
Popular wipes that did not make this list
Two of the best-selling wipes in America have genuinely good lotions and genuinely plastic cloth, and the difference matters more than the marketing suggests. Huggies Natural Care discloses, in its own asterisk, that it is made with 70 percent or more plant-based materials by weight. That leaves roughly 30 percent of the fiber blend that is not plant-based, and the wipe is not marketed as plastic-free or compostable. Pampers Aqua Pure is a blend too: Pampers’ own ingredient disclosure for the US product lists polyester among the fibers in its nonwoven cloth, alongside regenerated cellulose and organic cotton. Remember the 2023 Scripps finding above: in a blend, the plastic portion is the portion that stays. Neither brand is a bad wipe for skin; both fail the fiber test this guide is built on, so neither is linked here.
One more honesty note: Eco Pea Co makes an unbleached bamboo wipe with excellent paper credentials, and several competitor guides rank it first. It is not in this list because it has no Amazon listing we could verify, and we only link products we can send you to with a checked listing. If it appears on Amazon with a verifiable listing, it belongs in the next update of this guide.
Join Our Free Facebook GroupNon-Toxic Family Living: parents sharing swaps that work →
How to choose non-toxic baby wipes
Start with the fiber, because it decides everything else. Look for 100 percent viscose, bamboo viscose, or cotton in the materials line, and be suspicious of any wipe that says “plant-based” without a percentage; that phrase can hide a 30 percent plastic blend. Second, read the lotion: water at 99 percent or above with a short list beats a long list with fragrance, which no baby wipe needs. Third, prefer certifications checked by someone else, EWG Verified and MADE SAFE for ingredients, FSC for fiber sourcing, over claims a brand grades itself.
Finally, disposal. Water UK’s rule is the three Ps: only pee, paper, and poo go in a toilet. Every pick here says do not flush on its own packaging, and so-called flushable wipes do not disintegrate like toilet paper in real sewers. Bin every wipe, and keep reusables for at-home changes if laundry is realistic for your family.
Frequently asked questions
Are plastic-free baby wipes really biodegradable?
A 100 percent viscose or cotton wipe can biodegrade; a plastic or blended wipe cannot fully. Zambrano et al. (PLOS ONE, 2023) found cellulose fibers gone in about 35 days in marine conditions while plastic fibers showed no breakdown in 428 days. Landfill conditions are slower and less certain for any material, which is why reusables rank in this guide at all.
Can you flush biodegradable baby wipes?
No. Every pick here says do not flush, Water UK attributes 93 percent of sewer blockage material to wipes, and even wipes labelled flushable do not break apart like toilet paper. Bin them.
Is viscose a plastic?
No, under the definition regulators use. The EU’s single-use plastics guidance explicitly excludes viscose and lyocell from “plastic” because regenerated cellulose is a natural polymer not chemically modified in the finished fiber. It is a manufactured fiber, made from wood or bamboo pulp, but it is not a petroleum plastic and it biodegrades like one of the plant fibers in the Scripps study.
Are WaterWipes really plastic-free?
The cloth is 100 percent viscose, which is not a plastic fiber. A June 2025 class action alleges the finished wipes contain significant microplastic levels based on third-party testing; those are allegations, not proven findings, and we flag them in the WaterWipes section above so you can decide with the full picture.
How many cloth wipes does a family need?
Enough to cover two to three days between washes, which for most families means roughly two to three dozen in rotation, fewer once a baby is past the newborn stage. Both reusable picks above are sold in packs that make a sensible starter stash when combined.
Add Us as a Preferred Source on GoogleOne tap, and our guides show up first in your Google results →
