Eco-friendly washing powder

When people talk about eco-friendly laundry detergent, many don't fully understand what they're talking about, and marketers are taking advantage of this. These days, everyone is selling these kinds of laundry detergents. Even companies that have never made detergents before are doing so, not to mention the aggressive advertising of such products. Why is this happening? Is our population really so interested in eco-friendly detergents, or is there something else going on? Let's find out together.

About the harm of powders

It's common knowledge, and this is entirely thanks to advertisers, that laundry detergent contains a significant number of artificial ingredients. Each of these ingredients has its own purpose: some help dissolve stains more effectively, some restore color, and still others impart a fresh scent to freshly washed laundry. At first glance, this seems like a good idea, but scientists quickly discovered that these chemical components can accumulate in the human body and cause harm. What are these chemicals?

• Phosphates. These substances can be found in 98% of all powders sold in the territory CIS countries. Phosphates are needed to improve the effectiveness of laundry because they soften water. According to scientists, phosphates can cause severe allergies, and when they enter clean freshwater sources, they promote algae growth, which seriously pollutes these bodies of water.
• Surfactants. Active ingredients that fight stains on clothing. It's precisely because of their surfactant content that laundry detergents are so effective at removing stains. The problem is that surfactants can cause serious harm to the human body. If they accumulate in excess in human cells, they disrupt the body's biochemistry and can lead to serious illnesses.
• Bleaching agents. These substances, found in laundry detergents for whites, settle on clothes like dye, making them appear whiter after washing. These components are very persistent, do not wash out, and come into contact with human skin, which in turn can cause severe allergies.

In essence, the bleaching components are paint, only a very specific one.

• Chlorine compounds are very effective at removing stains from white clothing, leaving it perfectly clean. However, chlorine is an extremely harmful substance, a poison in the truest sense of the word. Chlorine compounds and their derivatives can cause anemia, hypertension, and various heart and lung diseases. In high concentrations, chlorine causes systemic poisoning and increases the risk of cancer tenfold.

Since the above mentioned components are present in most powders and cause harm to health when we use them, it is logical to assume that we need to look for powders that do not contain these substances. Accordingly, an environmentally friendly washing powder is a powder that does not contain chlorine, surfactants, bleaching components or phosphates. The necessary conclusions have been drawn, all that remains is to look for such powders.

Review of safe products

In this review, we'll list only the environmentally friendly detergents currently available on the market, carefully examining their ingredients. Here are several varieties of these laundry detergents.

Molecola Ecological for Baby. A laundry detergent designed for washing children's clothes. The manufacturer guarantees its 100% purity and safety. Let's take a look at the ingredients. This powder has only three ingredients: 5% sodium citrate, less than 30% baby coconut soap, and the rest is baking soda. The baking soda and soap are safe, but what is sodium citrate? This substance is nothing more than sodium citrate, which is used in various industries, including the food industry. If sodium citrate is even eaten, then it's certainly safe to use in laundry detergent. The price for a 1.2 kg pack is $6.17.

Ecoleiv Universal. Another eco-friendly detergent, but with a more complex composition. It contains soap granules and a natural plant extract (aloe vera), but also sodium silicate, sodium carbonate, and enzymes. What are these substances, and are they harmful to humans? Sodium silicate is nothing more than the food additive E550.

E550 is used in the food industry, for example in bread making. In powder form, it is completely harmless.

Sodium carbonate is the name for the well-known soda ash, which our grandmothers added to laundry tubs to make them whiter. And finally, enzymes—in Latin, "enzyme" means leaven. These are substances that accelerate biological processes; in powder form they are absolutely harmless, But in the food industry, this isn't always the case. A 1250-gram package costs $5.30.

Ecover Zero White is an environmentally friendly laundry detergent designed for washing white and colorfast laundry. It also contains natural soap, sodium silicate, sodium carbonate, and methyl ether ethoxylate. What is this "nasty stuff"? We won't go into detail or provide the chemical formula. Suffice it to say that this substance can be dangerous if ingested, and even then only in fairly large quantities. In powder form, it's safe.

Detergents like Bio Mio, Pure Water, Ondalind, Nissan Fa Fa Series, and others have roughly similar compositions. We won't describe them, as it's clear that these detergents don't contain anything harmful, and this is entirely true. But is there a problem? What is it? We'll discuss that in the next section.

What should be in the powder?

There's a serious problem with using eco-friendly laundry detergent for everyday washing in a washing machine. As we've discovered, almost all eco-friendly detergents contain soap in varying amounts. When used in a washing machine, soap granules clog the hoses and pipes and, over time, can cause the "home helper" to fail.

The picture that emerges is this: You spend money on expensive eco-friendly detergent and ruin your (by the way, expensive) automatic washing machine with your own hands. It would be a relief if the manufacturer were conscientious enough to indicate on the packaging that the detergent is not recommended for use in a washing machine, but unfortunately, more often than not, they don't.

Let's move on. How effective is this powder? We're not going to lie if we say that a simple mixture of washing soda and soap will clean clothes just as well as an eco-friendly powder and is just as safe. Conclusion: why overpay for eco-powder when you can buy its individual components for next to nothing.

You can buy both washing soda and soap in considerable quantities for $2.

In reality, a truly good and safe detergent should contain phosphates, surfactants, and bleaching agents, but only in safe concentrations. If a detergent lacks these substances, it will be safe for health but ineffective. If these substances are present in large quantities, the detergent will be effective but not safe. The bottom line: moderation is best.

It is necessary to develop uniform standards for the content of harmful chemicals in powders worldwide, and the above problems will resolve themselves. By the way about the best washing powders You can read about it in the publication of the same name on our website. Happy searching!

   

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