The Best Eco-Friendly Diffusers of 2020
Not all essential oil diffusers are made the same, we’ve curated a list of the best eco-friendly diffusers of 2020 for you.
Diffusing essential oils is super popular, it is not just for the yogis and health conscious among us any more, pretty much everyone likes to diffuse essential oils. With its popularity, comes many companies trying to take advantage of the product. When there are many companies trying to make a profit off of the popularity of aromatherapy, there will be cheaply and environmentally harmful made products out there. So, we have found the best eco-friendly ways for you to enjoy the goodness and benefits of essential oils no matter what your budget or where you are on your eco-conscious journey.
Our list of the best eco-friendly diffusers of 2020 include different types of essential oil diffuser, see the categories below to click around to your favorite type or scroll straight through to see them all.
1. Natural Stone Diffusers
Natural stone diffusers are one of the most eco-friendly diffusers of 2020. These types of diffusers use natural stones to emit the aromas from the essential oils. The natural materials used to diffuse can be lava stones, ceramic, clay, and other types of natural stone material. These types of eco-friendly diffusers do not require any electricity, water, heat or plastic reservoir. Natural stone diffusers are simple and easy to use, and they also have a very small environmental impact compared to their diffusing counterparts.
These cute lava rock diffusers by Julia Dean are exclusively at Uncommon Goods.
The eco-friendly diffuser uses lava rocks to release the sweet aromas of essential oils into the air, so there is no need to use electricity, heat, or water with this stone diffuser.
Lava rocks are porous, so they can absorb the oils and as they evaporate the smell comes off the rocks.
The lava stone eco diffuser comes in two different styles of ceramic holders, one representing the forest and the other representing the beach. Each comes with it's own essential oil blend, but any essential oil will work with this eco-friendly diffuser.
You can get at Uncommon Goods for $48 with an essential oil blend.
On Etsy you can find this adorable ceramic flower diffuser with a wood base. This diffuser is plastic free and is made of natural materials like clay and wood.
Just drop your essential oils of choice onto the flower and it'll disperse a gentle scent. This ceramic friendly diffuser is ideal for small spaces like a bathroom or home office office.
When you buy this diffuser from Etsy you are supporting a handmade small artisan shop. Etsy has also made the initiative to offset its carbon emissions from shipping by investing in projects that are dedicated to reducing carbon emissions.
Hello Geo Designs on Etsy has a unique air plant aromatherapy diffuser that is eco-friendly.
This diffuser is made from concrete, lava stones, and the air plant. Like the other natural stone diffusers mentioned in this post, this one does not need to use electricity, water or heat to get the aromas into the room.
This fun and unique diffuser is handmade and can be used with the essential oils of your choice. Add this special touch to your space and support this handmade artisan shop for $14.99.
Clay diffusing stones are a great natural alternative to diffusing essential oils without the need to use any electronic device making them more eco-friendly. These little clay rocks can naturally diffuse essential oils in a small room and they are cute to display as well.
Through this small Etsy shop you can get just a bag of the stones to place in a saucer of your choice for $19.99 or you can buy it with a glass display plate for $22.99 or a ceramic bowl with stones for $29.99 or even a nice gift set with the stones, bowl, and an oil for $54.99.
The Banksia seeds are a natural seed from Australia and they make a great eco-friendly diffuser in 2020. The pods absorb the essential oils and can slowly release the aromas in a small space.
This eco-friendly diffuser is from ECO Modern Essentials and is also vegan and cruelty free. The company uses recyclable packaging and transparent sourcing, this diffuser is made in Australia. Available for just $22.
2. Eco-Friendly Reed Diffusers
Reed diffusers are similar to the natural stone diffusers in that they do not need electricity, heat, or water to provide the beautiful aromas of essential oils. Reed diffusers use wooden reeds that help to emit the aromas that are placed in a jar that has a blend of oils in it.
These types of diffusers are eco-friendly since they use such simple materials compared to other types of diffusers. They are normally very affordable as well.
Artisan Stephen Kitras makes these hand-blown glass orbs that hold an oil vile and reeds to be able to stylishly provide aromatherapy to any space. Hang up these orbs in any area where you want the aroma to be diffused.
From Uncommon Goods you can buy them with oils already provided, choose your scent from an unwind blend or a balanced blend. The oil with the orb is $32, you can also buy an iron stand for these if you'd rather not hang it up. Once the oil t comes with is done, you can fill them with your own oil or buy a refill oil.
Kitras also offers other beautiful handblown glass diffusers that are beautiful for displaying. These are $49 on Uncommon Goods.
These reed diffuser flowers on Etsy add a nice touch to the simplicity of a reed diffuser. You still get the reeds but the tops are beautiful flower buds.
Add these flower reeds to your favorite vase with your favorite oil blends. These are best for a small room as the scent is gentle, add more reeds and stronger oils for a stronger scent.
The flower reeds alone are $20 or you can get them with the greenery for an additional $3.
3. Candle Diffusers
Candle diffusers are next on our list of eco-friendly diffusers for 2020. Candle diffusers are minimalistic, usually made of just ceramic or other stoneware, which is better for the environment than plastic. We've actually found some on Etsy that are made from bamboo or up-cycled material which is even more eco-friendly. There is no electricity needed to use a candle diffuser but heat is required, this heat usually comes from a small tea-light candle. Candles have their own issues when it comes to being environmentally friendly, but there are ways to make candles more green. Buy candles that are made of soy and that have a cotton wick, the aluminum of a tea-light can be recycled easily.
We’ve found some great candle diffusers on Etsy for you that we’ll highlight below and there are many many more you can find with a simple search on Etsy or Amazon for “oil burner diffuser”. These candle oil burners are probably also easy to find at thrift shops.
Upcycled and recycled products are always the best to buy since there is no new material that is being produced or used to make something new. Also, when old materials are reimagined into something completely new, it also saves those items from going into the landfill and extends its life.
The Wood Factory UK on Etsy is doing just that with their Spoon & Reclaimed Wood Oil Burner. The eco-friendly diffuser is handmade and very affordable, coming in at $16.
Alchemy Vibes For You is a small shop on Etsy based in the UK.
This beautiful oil burning diffuser is made of bamboo, which is one of the fastest growing renewable resources. There are 2 small ceramic dishes, one to hold a tea-light and one to hold your oil or soy melt to diffuser aromatherapy.
There are 2 option designs for the $30 bamboo burner and the shop has other oil burners as well.
Peppy Fragrance on Etsy has many adorable tealight oil diffusers, including this cactus one, for under $15.
Although ceramic isn't as eco-friendly as bamboo or upcycled wood, it is still a stoneware that's natural and is better than plastic.
4. Nebulizing Diffuser
Nebulizing diffusers are one of the purest ways to strongly diffuse essential oils, since there is no heat or water the essence of the oils are pure.
Without the use of heat or water, the essential oil scent is not diluted at all, giving off pure essential oil smells. Pressurized air turns the oils into a gas that is pushed through the nebulizer.
Nebulizing diffusers have their pros and cons. Some great things about them are that they are pure essential oil aromas, they don't use water or heat, and they normally are made plastic free with wood/bamboo and glass.
Although nebulizers are great, they do use a lot of oil since it is not diluted at all and the nebulizer itself is a little more expensive.
This makes nebulizers not the most budget friendly choice but they are a great choice if you want the purest form of essential oils.
Organic Aromas offers a large variety of hand carved nebulizing diffusers and also specialty engraved nebulizing diffusers if you are looking for something more special.
These particular diffusers also do not use any plastic, making them more eco friendly than the standard ultrasonic diffusers.
5. Electric Ultrasonic Diffuser
Electric diffusers are one of the most common and well-known types of diffusers but they are at the bottom of our list of eco-friendly diffusers for 2020. While electric diffusers are well-known and give off a great long lasting scent of essential oils, they are normally cheaply made and made of toxin laden plastics.
We have found a few eco-friendly electric diffusers made either plastic free or with bps free plastic.
We found this eco-friendly diffuser by Ekobo on Food52. It is made with bamboo fiber and wood with a glass reservoir, so it's plastic free.
The $85 diffuser is by Ekobo a maker out of France specializing in using renewable bamboo for making household items.
As mentioned above, bamboo is one of the best renewable resources because it grows so fast. Purchase whatever you can in bamboo, including your essential oil diffuser, like this one from Wonderful Scents.
This diffuser does have a plastic reservoir but it is bpa free. It is on sale now for less than $40.
Wonderful Scents takes it a step further, this diffuser is UL laboratory tested, has the CE mark, and is ROHS certified. You can learn more about these certifications here.
This Kumi diffuser is made of porcelain with a bpa free plastic reservoir.
The diffuser is on sale now for $59. It has 2 settings and can last non-stop for 3 hours or intermittent for 7.5 hours.
The best eco-friendly diffusers of 2020 come in many different forms. Most of the items we've featured are plastic free or have a small amount of bpa free plastic in them.
Choose one from our list as you begin to transform your home to become more eco-friendly and low impact in 2020.
Diffusers are always a nice touch to add ambience, and natural fragrances to any space. The essential oils that are diffused usually have nice benefits depending on the oil you are using to help you breathe easy, feel relaxed, or focused and more.
When living a sustainable life there is a lot to consider, like the material used in the product, how it is produced, and the values of the company the products are on. That is why we love to highlight products from Etsy since they are normally handmade by small shops and artisans and Etsy is working on becoming a carbon neutral company.
