Many of us are aware that conventional laundry products are bad for the environment. But do eco-friendly laundry detergents work?
In recent years, people’s awareness about their impact on the environment has grown sharply. As a result, many are looking to make changes to become more sustainable.
One change I am really keen to make is being more sustainable washing our clothes. I have already made some changes, like washing in cold water or 30°C and using the dryer much less.
But through my research I found out that conventional laundry detergents are toxic for us and the environment. So I decided to swap to a green alternative.
Like many other people, I was concerned about the effectiveness of any alternatives. Because what’s the point of switching if you don’t get the results you want, right?
So in this article I will tell if eco-friendly laundry detergents work.
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Conventional Vs Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergents – What’s The Difference?
In order to find out if eco-friendly laundry detergents work, we have to know what we are dealing with. How are they different from the commonly used products?
Toxic Vs Non-Toxic Ingredients
One of the main differences is in the ingredients they use. The big brands that we all know use harsh and toxic chemicals.
On the other hand, eco-friendly laundry products contain non-toxic ingredients, most commonly plant-based.
The main issues with the ingredients used in conventional laundry detergents are:
- Most chemicals used are made from petroleum (which means fossil fuels)
- Majority of these chemicals aren’t biodegradable (which means they stay in the environment for a long time)
- Most of the chemicals used are toxic for us and the environment
The ingredients that are used in eco-friendly laundry detergents are basically the opposite:
- plant-based
- biodegradable
- non-toxic
That doesn’t necessarily mean that all eco-friendly alternatives only use natural ingredients. Some still use synthetic chemicals, but they will be plant-based, non-toxic and biodegradable.
Necessary Vs Unnecessary Ingredients
Conventional laundry products contain ingredients that aren’t necessary for their performance. Unfortunately, these are among the most harmful to our environment.
Let’s start with dyes. Liquid detergents and laundry pods, in particular, boast vibrant and eye-catching colours. That’s because they contain dyes.
They don’t contribute to cleaning your laundry; just make the laundry detergent look prettier. Often, the colour matches the fragrance of the detergent.
The problem is that most dyes used are coal tar dyes. These are made either from coal tar, a buy product when burning coal, or produced synthetically. Either way, coal tar dyes can be harmful to the environment.
Eco-friendly alternatives don’t use dyes, or if they do, they use natural ones, which won’t harm the planet.
Another unnecessary but harmful ingredient used in conventional laundry products is perfume or fragrance. Clean has no scent, but we have been made to believe that only nice smelling laundry is clean.
Think of adverts for laundry products: they all emphasise the lovely fresh smell. The problem is that the synthetic fragrance chemicals commonly used are petrochemicals which are harmful for the environment.
But these fragrances don’t help to clean your clothes at all. Admittedly, many eco-friendly laundry detergents also contain fragrances. Probably because the belief that clean equals nice scent is so ingrained in us.
However, they will use fragrances that are either natural (essential oils) or plant-based. This means the perfumes used in sustainable detergents aren’t bad for the environment.
Liquid polymers are another group of ingredients that are used in many conventional liquid laundry products. Not because it will help clean your clothes, but to either bulk out the product, so it appears to be more than it is.
Or to create a milky/creamy consistency. The problem is that liquid polymers aren’t biodegradable and will stay in our environment for a long time. While not actually classed as plastic due to its liquid state, it does have the same negative effects on our planet as plastic.
And like plastic it’s made from fossil fuels. You won’t find any liquid polymers in an eco-friendly laundry detergent. It’s unnecessary and harmful to the environment.
Top-Rated Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergents That Work
| Cleaning Products | Value For Money | Effectiveness | Sustainability | My Rating | Full Review | Official Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Excellent | Excellent | Outstanding | 4.90/5 | Read Review | Visit Website |
 | Outstanding | Excellent | Excellent | 4.90/5 | Read Review | Visit Website |
 | Great | Outstanding | Excellent | 4.85/5 | Read Review | Visit Website |
Surfactants Don’t Have To Be Bad For The Environment
The most important group of chemicals or ingredients that are needed to clean your laundry are surfactants. They are the ones that do the hard work and that are absolutely necessary.
Surfactants fulfil several functions in a laundry detergent:
- Lifting stains from clothes
- Containing dirt, so it can be washed away
- As wetting agent to ensure cleaning ingredients are distributed evenly
- As foaming agent (which is not really necessary, it’s just for looks)
Most conventionally used surfactants are harmful to the environment. Some of them are so-called “forever chemicals” or PFSAs. These chemicals don’t degrade in the environment, so will cause harm to our planet forever, hence the name.
Sustainable alternatives also use surfactants, but they are non-toxic and won’t harm our planet.
The question is: are the surfactants used in eco-friendly laundry detergents as good as the ones used in conventional products?
The answer is yes. There are natural ingredients as well as plant-based synthetic chemicals that have the same properties as their harmful equivalents.
This means that eco-friendly detergents are effective at cleaning your laundry. Eco-friendly surfactants are plant-based and made from coconut oil, palm and palm kernel oil and olive oil.
Due to their plant-based origins, they tend to be biodegradable. This means they break down in our environment into harmless components.
You might have spotted palm oil on the list above. Palm oil is not generally seen as an eco-friendly ingredient, because it is responsible for deforestation, which contributes to climate change.
However, if sustainably grown, palm oil is an eco-friendly ingredient. Make sure you only buy a product that contains palm oil, if it is RSPO-certified, which means the palm oil used has been grown sustainably.
Because surfactants can also be made from other oils, such as coconut oil, most eco-friendly laundry detergent brands don’t use palm oil. But nevertheless, it’s always good to check.
The surfactants used in sustainable products are milder, so particularly bad stains might need to be pretreated. But then, I had to do this with many conventional detergents I have used over the years.
You can use a paste of baking soda and water to pretreat stains. Just rub it on and leave for 10 minutes before putting affected items in the washing machine. It’s a completely eco-friendly pretreatment for tough stains.
Whites Might Not Come Out As White
One area where eco-friendly laundry detergents lose out to conventional ones is when it comes to keeping white laundry white. If you wash your whites with an eco-friendly product, they won’t look as white as with a conventional one.
The reason is quite simple: conventional laundry detergents contain optical brighteners, while sustainable alternatives don’t.
But what are these optical brighteners, I hear you ask. They are chemicals that reflect light, which makes white clothes appear whiter. Mind you, they don’t MAKE them whiter.
So why don’t eco-friendly products use these optical brighteners? Because they are very harmful to aquatic life. They contain chemicals called Stilbenes, which are toxic to fish.
No brand that is serious about being eco-friendly could use these ingredients in their products.
However, it means that this is one compromise that you have to make when you switch to an eco-friendly laundry detergent. You have to accept that your whites won’t look as white as with your old product.
For me personally, this is a compromise I am very willing to make. After all, what good is bright white laundry to me if climate change makes our planet uninhabitable?
Conclusion
So what’s the verdict: do eco-friendly laundry detergents work? The answer is yes, they do. They contain cleaning agents, called surfactants, that ensure your clothes are clean.
But the difference is that sustainable products use plant-based, biodegradable ingredients that won’t harm the environment or us. They also don’t tend to use unnecessary ingredients such as dyes or liquid polymers.
While eco-friendly alternatives might contain fragrances, they will be non-toxic and plant based, rather than made from petrochemicals.
One thing environmentally friendly detergents don’t contain is optical brighteners, because they are toxic to fish. This means that you have to accept that your white bedsheets or shirts won’t look as white as if you washed them with conventional detergents.
Because the ingredients used in sustainable products are milder, tough stains might have to be pretreated. However, this is not a big deal and can happen with conventional detergents.
Living a more sustainable life can sometimes feel difficult, but by making simple changes to our routines, we can achieve it. Switching to eco-friendly laundry detergents will help the planet, so it’s a no-brainer.
Make the switch today and enjoy not just clean clothes but also a clean conscience.
Top-Rated Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergents
| Cleaning Products | Value For Money | Effectiveness | Sustainability | My Rating | Full Review | Official Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excellent | Excellent | Outstanding | 4.90/5 | Read Review | Visit Website |
| Outstanding | Excellent | Excellent | 4.90/5 | Read Review | Visit Website |
| Great | Outstanding | Excellent | 4.85/5 | Read Review | Visit Website |
