You jump in the shower, grab a bar of soap, lather up, take in the sweet aroma of the bubbles and all is well with the world. You sure ‘bout that?

In modern America, virtually all commercially available major brands of bar soap, even those that are 99 and something percent pure, are made from animal fat. Due to the obvious “gross factor,” manufacturers don’t like to call it animal fat so they put it on the label as tallow or sodium tallowate. Some of the brands you may think are the purest just simply don’t even list the jargonized ingredients. For a moment, let’s put the gross factor, or the illogic of rubbing oneself with animal fat to make oneself clean aside.

According to a panel of scientists from the United Nations, animal agriculture contributes to 18% of the greenhouse gases. Therefore, by “cleaning” yourself with tallow-based bar soap you are helping to worsen the Earth’s warming crisis.

Though not all bar soap is made from animal products, virtually all the popular brands that are in the usual supermarkets, drug stores, department stores and convenience stores are comprised mostly of this ingredient. Why? Because the slaughterhouses must either pay money to dispose of this waste in the appropriate dump sites, or they can hand it off to the soap manufacturers for a song. This certainly benefits the slaughterhouses and the soap manufacturers, but pretty much hangs the rest of us out to dry.

Conversely, bar soap made from plant sources can cost considerably more money than tallow-based soap. But who wants to spend more money, especially if these products do the same thing? Ergo, the plant-based soaps end up in health food stores where the “weirdos” shop. And, I kid you not, they can cost as much as seven dollars per bar! So what’s the Earth-minded, “normal” consumer to do?

While you’re still a bit woozy from the normalcy, I may as well fill you in on one of the dirtiest secrets. Whenever there is a recall of beef, for example, resulting from mad cow disease, E. coli or any number of other reasons (seemingly becoming a regular occurrence), do you think they recall the rendered fat that may have already been truck off and processed for soap? Hah! And speaking of rendering, tallow isn’t just the fat harvested from cattle; it can include fat from dogs and cats (and other animals) that have been euthanized in animal shelters.

Many people are now using liquid soap. This helps to mitigate the gross factor, but liquid soap, while appearing to be an affordable option, is actually insanely expensive when you realize that it is mostly water. Sure, some people like liquid soap and enjoy the sudsy nature of it. Knowing a thing or two about soap, I’ll break it to you gently … Generally speaking, the more water you add, the sudsier it gets. So ask yourself who, really, is cleaning up? To make matters worse, consider that huge 18-wheel tractor trailer trucks are burning untold zillions of gallons of diesel fuel transporting this soapy water all over the country – to your favorite store, where we normal people shop. Liquid soap, I’m sorry to say, is not the Earth-friendly option.

Fortunately, there are a few brands of plant-based bar soap out there that are becoming increasingly affordable – but you still have to look for them. ‘Kiss My Face’ has been around for a while and a four-ounce bar retails for about $2.25. ‘Veganu’ is another affordable brand that has come on the market recently and can be found priced as low as $1.49 for a 4.5 ounce bar. Veganu is even available in online stores such as VeganEssentials.com. Even at $1.49, however, it is still considerably more than most animal-fat-based soaps.

So what’s a consumer to do? We each have to make some pretty tough decisions. Would you spend 10% more to save the planet? 25% more? One thing is for sure, many of us will need to rethink our definitions of “clean” and “cleaning up.”