11.26.2007

why can't it just be soap?


my sister sent me an idea for a blog about laundry soap, and I thought to myself, oh, we all use "green" soap, but then as I read on I realized that maybe we don't...so here is her blog, thank you linda!

I’m not sure if it is just me or if I am so tuned into the “green” world that it seems to be everywhere. Even the NBC news is green. Sometimes it just seems so overwhelming, what can one person do? One of the easiest ways I know to help is to choose products that are green, and opt out of ones that are not. Everyone does laundry. Imagine if we all stopped using detergents with unnecessary chemicals like perfumes and dyes that are harmful to the environment. I was walking down our neighborhood road yesterday and could smell the houses that were doing laundry. That was some pretty potent stuff they were using. These are all synthetic chemicals produced in a factory causing unnecessary pollution. I like a detergent form the co op that is biodegradable has a slight natural fragrance. And if I need extra cleaning power I use some prewash like Biz in the wash. Works great. Also those dryer sheets, whose marketing idea is that...adding more chemicals to your clothing, you don’t need them. It's just another waste of chemicals, pollution and money. One more thing to think about is that powder detergent works better and is better for the environment, there's need to ship water around when you are adding water to the wash anyway.

My husband brought home some dishwashing soap from the grocery store the other day, I was amazed at the fragrance. I could smell it from the front door and couldn’t figure it out until I walked into the kitchen. It was just some normal soap like Dawn, but I couldn’t believe the amount of fragrance. Even the kids noticed. I figure it is probably better for ourselves and the environment to forgo these synthetic chemicals. Natural dish soap is readily available where I live and probably in your neighborhood as well.

some terrific brands that are natural and biodegradable are from seventh generation and ecover. the image above is from a new product, cleanut, that is, for now, only available in europe...but I loved the packaging! (click here to read more about it on treehugger)