So you're warming up to the idea of freeing yourself from mum's advice - if it was ever really just "advice" 😆 - and changing the type of home cleaning products you usually use. Good for you (and for all of us!).
In the next lines I will try to give you an overview of what types of products are available on the market and what problem each approach is trying to solve, so that you can then make the best choice for you.
Some basic concepts such as biodegradability and toxicity, raw materials, distribution and packaging will be useful to you: if you need a refresher, you can find the various concepts explained
here . Let's start by saying that all "eco-sustainable detergents" aim to reduce the impact of their use. What changes, and is how they do it.
Focus: "naturality of raw materials"
In this group, we have all those products that focus on
the naturalness of the raw materials used, on their origin - often plant-based and/or from organic farming -, on the fact that no components of petrochemical origin have been used during the manufacturing processes.
A weak point of this approach is that it does not care much about the downstream effects of the raw materials used: the fact that an ingredient is of plant origin says nothing about its safety towards the environment and how much it can pollute it. For example, the much-loved essential oils, of purely vegetal origin, are among the most irritating, full of allergens and polluting
substances that can be found.
Focus: "few ingredients"
In this category, the emphasis is on the fact that they have very "light" formulations, i.e. composed of few ingredients. The idea is that “less is more”, both for humans and for the environment. So away with fragrances, as well as all those additives that make your linen so soft but that have no real business in cleaning them!
In this case the danger is that, if too much is removed, the performance of the product may fall below desirable levels.
Focus: "safety and low environmental impact"
The products of this group aim to reduce environmental impact, therefore selecting ingredients
with high biodegradability, low eco-toxicity and without risk of bioaccumulation . A plus of these products is that, if the eco-toxicity is low, so will the toxicity on humans ( we too are living organisms in an ecosystem!).
In order to obtain raw materials with the desired environmentally-friendly characteristics but also capable of high performances, one often has to do a bit of good old chemistry, therefore approaching the much feared "synthetic".
Focus: "concentrates"
This group includes all those products that focus on improving the distribution phase: they contain less water than traditional ready-to-use detergents, which results in lower weight and therefore an emission reduction during the distribution phase.
The water content can be lowered as desired, from the more standard concentrates (those where instead of a measuring spoon you can use half a measuring spoon), up to the more innovative ones, which contain very little or even zero water.
The disadvantage in the latter case is that, in the total absence of water, it is necessary to reduce the quantity of surfactants, as the solubility of this category of molecules is usually moderate. However, if there are no particular cleaning needs, such as degreasing ovens or fryers, the concentrations achieved are absolutely adequate.
If you are interested in knowing more about concentrated and super concentrated detergents and their performance, you can find the corresponding article
here .
Focus: "do-it-yourself"
Here we have all those products for which the consumer buys the basic ingredients and then mixes them himself, adding only what he feels he needs, in the doses he chooses. You often get excellent products as long as you are willing get informed and prepare them every time.
Focus: "low-packaging"
This category includes all those products that try to reduce their impact by reducing their packaging; the culmination are the "zero packaging" products, i.e. those that propose the reuse of the same container over and over again. This category includes detergents sold in bulk or detergents
super concentrated , both in pod and tablet form.
