The Bite:
We wish. Many contain ingredients you don't usually want anywhere near your personal affairs (animal tallow, anyone?). Try our fave goods to keep your clothes - not to mention your eco-reputation - as clean as a whistle.
Are all laundry products as clean as they seem?
04.17.2008
Submitted by tmeronek on Thu, 04/17/2008 - 12:27am.
The Benefits:
- Safety first. In the United States, 25,000-plus kids "are exposed to" (that's EPA code for "have accidents involving") chlorine bleach each year.
- Saving oil. If every U.S. household replaces one box of 48-oz, petroleum-based powder laundry detergent with a vegetable-based one, we'll save enough oil to heat and cool 5,300 homes for a year.
- Avoiding irritation. Fragrances and harsh solvents like ammonia contained in some typical detergents and fabric softeners can trigger your allergies and asthma, and cause skin irritation.
- Scents you'll wanna sniff. Not reeking of chlorine is always a plus.
Personally Speaking:
We wish the whole iSmell thing had panned out, just so you could smell these detergents and fabric softeners through your computer screen.
Wanna Try:
Bleach
- Ecover Bleach - make your whites even brighter with this nonchlorine bleach ($5/14 oz).
Detergent
- Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Laundry Detergent - liquid that really works. Comes in five scents; geranium's our fave, but we don't reco mixing fragrances between washer and dryer ($12/32 oz).
Dryer Sheets
- Shaklee Get Clean Dryer Sheets - biodegradable and made with none of the vegetarian-unfriendly animal tallow found in regular dryer sheets ($10/80 sheets).
Fabric Softener
- Mrs. Meyer's Fabric Softener - essential oils (instead of tallow) fluff your fabrics right nice; in four scents, here in sweet geranium ($8/32 oz).
Stain Remover
- Laundress Stain Solution - we love this whole line of biodegradable, upscale cleaning products - especially this hardworking stain remover that gets out even nasty pit stains ($6/2 oz).
Wool Wash
- Kookaburra Wash - liquid tea tree oil wash that works great for delicates and even washes wool, so you can skip the dry cleaner ($11/16 oz).
Cocktail Fact
Wi-fi washing: Worcester Polytechnic Institute has a website that allows students to check the progress of their laundry via the internet.
Bang For The Bite
If 10,000 Biters replace their bleach- or ammonia-based cleaner with a biodegradable alternative for one year, we'll keep 400 bucketfuls of toxic chems from begriming our planet.
Tips Like This
01.12.2009
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