D for detergent or danger? Yes, your laundry detergent could actually be dangerous! To you and our environment. If you knew about its origins, you wouldn’t be so surprised about this claim. Much like most other inventions in medicine and technology, war was a huge motivator of innovation in the twentieth century. Necessitated by the lack of access to common household ingredients like baking soda, manufacturers developed liquid detergents in Germany during the first World War. With the help of PETROL! It doesn’t just run cars.. Apparently, it also runs out grease and grime from your shirts.
Did we prick your curiosity? Allow us to satisfy the questions circling your mind.
How does laundry detergent work?
As we mentioned before, modern liquid detergents are made of petrochemicals(derived from petroleum) or oleochemicals(derived from fats or oils) which act as surfactants. What are those? Since oil and grease repel water, we can’t just wash off stains. Hence, we need surfactants. They are active agents with both repel and attract water. In layman’s speak, surfactants help overcome the barriers between oil stains and the water used to clean them, allowing the detergent to do its job. However, chemical detergents use synthetic surfactants which are bad for the environment and us!
Why should you ditch chemical detergents?
1) They’re harmful to the environment:
Since they use surfactants derived from petroleum, the manufacturing of traditional chemical detergents encourages excessive petroleum mining. This disrupts wildlife by encroaching upon their natural habitat. For example, the infrastructure laid out to drill for petrol— power lines, fences, wells and roads— fragment many wildlife communities.
Furthermore, these activities also release more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, increasing our carbon footprint by a gazillion sizes.
They’re also laden with phosphates, commonly also found in fertilizers! When those phosphates make their way back into our oceans they encourage excessive growth of algae, depriving marine life of much needed oxygen.
Synthetic surfactants also cause direct damage to fish. They harm their gills and interfere with their internal growth and development.
2) They're harmful to you:
Where do you think the chemical residue left behind on your clothes goes? It either evaporates and pollutes the air you breathe or gets absorbed into your body through the skin triggering diseases like skin dermatitis! In fact some of its ingredients such as petroleum distillates are also carcinogenic.
3) They're harmful to your clothes too
At the end of the day, your detergent needs to be friendly to your clothes. It’s literally in the job description! However, chemical detergents are fit to be called “frenemies”. In the guise of keeping your clothes clean, they shorten the lifespan of your favourite tees. How? They’re extremely harsh. Well, duh! They’re filled with chemicals. Hence, they leech away colours from your clothes and loosen the fibres too, encouraging micro-shedding, giving your clothes unsolicited and ugly make-overs. Yikes, who knew that dirty clothes could be preferable to clean ones.
What’s the alternative?
Well, if you’re like us and enjoy the feel (READ SMELL) of clean clothes, then it’s time to switch to Born Good’s plant-based biodegradable laundry detergents. Natural liquid detergents are not only better for the environment and your own health, but your clothes will love them too!
Since plant-based liquid detergents are made with the goodness of BioBased natural ingredients, they’re gentle on your clothes, and ultimately your skin and the environment too. They’re not loaded with chemical surfactants and phosphates. So you can bid goodbye to nasty rashes and carcinogenic fears with them. They’re also hypoallergenic. This means that they're sensitive to your sensitive skin. But, do they get the job done?
Absolutely! Just because they don’t use chemicals, doesn’t mean they’re germ friendly. Plant based detergents also contain surfactants which help get the stains out. However, they use biodegradable ingredients such as coconut or palm oil and citrus extracts, making them both effective and environmentally friendly.
Furthermore, they’re more energy efficient than conventional detergents. They don’t need the heat from hot water to get the grease out of your clothes, thus saving you the added cost of heating water to run your washing machine. Born Good’s plant based fragrance liquid detergent works efficiently with room temperature or cold water. So, what are you waiting for? Make the switch and shush the guilt of harming the environment, and reduce your carbon footprint. Cart Born Good’s plant based fragrance liquid detergent and get your hands on the best liquid detergent for washing machines, now!
