How Much Do YOU Spend on Each Load of Laundry?

Perhaps this is a strange seeming question; most people would not track their budget down to this level, but with the current market conditions and a renewed desire to provide in a meaningful way for our families, laundry detergent is one place where uber savings can easily be achieved. We just have to be willing to get our hands a little dirty for cleanliness.

The last few bottles of detergent I have purchased have been to test drive some of the more popular shelf brands which claim to be Green. In essence they have worked well -- my clothing is clean, smells nice and the impact I am washing down the drain has been lowered -- but the cost has definitely hit a little too tight on the old wallet.

A couple of nights ago while at our monthly Bennetts Brook Green Group meeting, one of the meeting organizers, Julie, shared her discovery of a recipe to create homemade laundry detergent from four simple ingredients. When she shared the cost to create it I vowed to pick up some rubber gloves and become a chemist as soon as this bottle of detergent runs out!

Straight from Julie:

“We've been using this detergent for about a week and I'm really happy with it. The laundry seems to be getting clean and the cloth diapers don't have any stink issues. For less than $10 we now have two gallon jugs of detergent plus enough ingredients to make at least 9 more batches. That's 20-30 gallons, or 640 to 960 loads of laundry, which works out to about 1 to 2 cents a load. It did take a bit of time to make and it was a little scary heating the baking soda and handling the Borax (use gloves!), but well worth it.”

The main reason she started doing research was because her family uses cloth diapers and she was beginning to find that there was build up from other detergents that began causing absorption issues. After looking into this and doing a ton of research Julie discovered the following recipe for homemade detergent.

Laundry Detergent

1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax

1/2 cup Washing Soda

1 bar Ivory soap
Water (as indicated)

(up powdered ingredients to 2/3 cup if you have hard water)

- Shave the soap into a medium sauce pan with 6 cups water. Heat until soap is melted.

- Add powder ingredients, stir.

- Have a large container with a lid (or plastic wrap) waiting with 4 cups cool water. Add soap mixture, stir.

- Add 1 gallon + 6 cups cool water to bucket, stir.

- Cover and let sit for 1-2 days.

- Mixture will have gelled. I use my hands to "squish" the gel into tiny pieces and stir.
- Pour into milk jugs or something similar.- Makes about 2 1/2 gallons. Use 1/2 cup per load.

Cool!

Bear in mind that borax is the naturally occurring sodium borate which is a mineral (typically mined after seasonal lakes evaporate) so just like any other compound one should take caution when using it.

Additionally, Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate) is added primarily as a water softener but is a mineral as well. The good news here is that the mineral is naturally occurring and 100% regenerative so it can never be mined out.

Not sure where to find Washing Soda? The product is sometimes referred to as Soda Ash and the top producer of it is Arm & Hammer. Most supermarkets will carry it in their cleaning supply aisle near the laundry detergents (I have been told Stop & Shop carries a generic version but have not yet confirmed this). In addition, because it is sometimes used to regulate pH levels many pool supply companies will carry it as well.

Additionally, it can be created by placing Baking Soda in a 500 degree oven for 30-60 minutes but again, exercise caution while doing this! (As a side note, this is how Julie created her Washing Soda and it does appear to be working for her which is fantastic!)

When our current bottle of eco-detergent runs out this is a science experiment I am ready to tackle. I may even add a few drops of an essential oil like lavender or eucalyptus to give my clothes a nice scent.

Have you made your own detergent? What was your recipe and how did it work for you?

Photo courtesy MarketingShop

Lots of Fun New Finds!

It’s a lazy Sunday morning around our house. Matt is sleeping in and I am doing some research for this week’s upcoming Green Leaf Reviewer posts. We are awaiting the snow which should be falling within the next handful of hours and are looking forward to making a tasty brunch later. We have a Sunday that is completely free from plans outside of our apartment and it feels great! Once Matt gets up however, there is a lot to get done around here.

The first thing we are going to do today is take the trash out in our GoodSense recycled trash bags. When I discovered these (at Walmart believe it or not!) the other night I was excited to give them a try. So far I am really impressed! They are sold in a box of 20, thirteen gallon bags and although I can not fill them with lots of sharp or pointy things, for a 60% recycled plastic content bag they are really sturdy to handle everyday trash. They have a drawstring and when comparing price they were actually $.04 cheaper per 40 count box.

After that we have got to throw in some laundry. We have been using Arm & Hammer Essentials and Downy Free fabric softener, as both products left out the petroleum based chemicals, but I discovered some recipes for a few natural based solutions over at Better n Before this morning and plan on giving them a try once we are out of what we currently have. (PLEASE NOTE: I have heard that Borax can be harmful to pets so be mindful to research the ingredients for yourself to determine the recipe’s individual worthiness!)

Perhaps as we watch the snow fall I will take some pictures of the entertainment center that has finally entered our home so Matt will have some visual inspiration to write Part III of the construction journey. Of course it has been a while so he will likely want to review Part I and Part II in order to ensure the story flows.

Maybe after all that is said and done I will pop over to Ideal Bite and finally sign up to receive the daily ‘living green tip’ newsletter in email. It is too bad we already went grocery shopping because today’s suggested Mardi Gras jambalaya experience sounds pretty tasty!

To wrap up my day today I am going to take some time to carefully review the 266 projects that Massachusetts deems “shovel-ready” or rather projects that could receive grant money now that the stimulus bill has gone through. I may even decide to rate a few projects as worthy or not worth the money. Everyone can join in! Just head on over to the Stimulus Watch website and sort as you see fit (by your state, keywords, by project) then click away to rate and review. I have a feeling this one might get a little bit more than end of the day attention as it is chock full of useful information and loads of projects I had never even heard were proposed in my state.

For a Sunday with no real plans it sure looks like we will be busy around here!

My Pile of Laundry Was Growing

And it was starting to stink because I was feeling pretty bad about using the petroleum based detergent and disposable dryer sheets I was storing under the kitchen sink to get it clean. I had been using these products for many years but now, as more and more environmental information begins to sink in, it was causing me distress to consider pouring more nastiness down the drain. But…I told myself that no matter what the ingredients, it was better to use what I had before buying something new so at the end of this past week when we finally ran out of the bad for the Earth detergent, Matt volunteered to walk down to the grocery store to pick up some more. He assured me that he would be reading each label based on the factors that are most important to us.

The first thing Melissa wrote for Green Leaf was a review of a few laundry detergents. What she quickly discovered and shared with us is that some of the products saying they are super green may not be so eco-friendly after all due to the use of coconut based surfactants; controversy over the harvesting of these oils due to the potential impact it has on a rainforest became the topic raised. After reading that I was most definitely stumped and wondered what in creation I could do to actually wash my clothing without having an impact on the planet in some way.

My conclusion was to weigh all the options, determine the least impactful trade off for my family’s personal needs and not feel bad about my decision because I was at least making a well informed choice.

The issues that were important to our family in regard to the impact laundry detergents have on the environment (on a global level as well as a personal level) are:

1. Perpetuating the use of petroleum based products
2. Discovering renewable resource ingredients
3. Spending less money for something that will last longer
4. Removing the burned laundry smell (frequently occurs with coin-op machines)
5. Soft, static free fabrics (especially at this dry time of year)

When taking all of these issues into account, looking up information on each product, its ingredients and associated terms, as well as re-reading the information Melissa provided as a fantastic jumping off guide, we determined that Arm & Hammer Essentials detergent and Ultra Downy were the right products for us.


Here is how they fit into the list of our vital family factors:

1 & 2. Neither product uses petroleum based products in the detergent itself, both are derived from plant based resources: detergent - coconut oil, softener - cationic surfactant which, based on the P&G pdf link for Fabric Conditioner, looks to be corn based ethanol. (Without getting too scientific the basic definition of cationic is: a positively charged ion that moves toward a negative ion, and surfactant is: a substance that lowers tension of water once dissolved (soap) allowing organic compounds (dirt) to become more soluble)

3. Both products were purchased collectively for just over the cost of one bottle of Seventh Generation detergent (which contains similar ingredients) and after about seven loads (including our heavy comforter) we still have more than half a bottle left.

4 & 5. Since we chose the fabric softener free of dyes and perfumes but the detergent with a mountain rain scent there was a slight burned smell lingering on some loads (sheets specifically) but mostly they were all soft, static free and smelling like clean laundry. Though as a side note, I just sniffed the liquid in both bottles just to see how it compared to the smell of the clean fabrics and I am not joking when I tell you that the fabric softener smells exactly like Elmer’s Glue. Very strange and will likely open up a new can of research into what ingredients make up that product to see if they are at all similar.
Due to all of these factors, as well as the knowledge that both bottles can be recycled, I am granting a Four Leaf Rating to both of these products.

In a global capacity, I have no idea where these products would be placed on a greenness scale, I do not know who or what would determine that type of mass rating system, but on a personal level I feel that we made a well informed, thoroughly researched decision to purchase products which have a greater positive impact in our environment. Each time we purchase a necessary product using these types of personal guidelines we are helping to reduce waste, save money and garnering a good value as well as performance.

Spreading It Around With Three Green Leaves

Since starting this blog I have had so much encouragement for the effort and so many suggestions of topics to discuss that I was overwhelmed and excited all at the same time! It was wonderful to see that so many people were committed to living more eco-friendly lives and I was thrilled to share information with them.

One of the topics raised with my sister in law was that of household cleaning products. She was already doing some research on various products so I asked if she would be interested in completing a write up on her findings so I could share it with everyone. She was definitely excited to dig into the topic even deeper and she emailed me her final piece just the other day.

When I got to the end of the editorial I noticed she was unsure how many leaves to give to each company so the ratings posted below are my interpretation of each strictly based on her findings; I intend to do some research into this topic myself as I am currently using one of the products she mentions. I love the way it works and was pleased at its lack of environmental impact but now I also feel it requires more investigating as Melissa has indicated.

So without further ado, here is her first GLR piece!

The Jury Is Still Out

A big ol' can of worms

OK, for me, the whole issue of what constitutes a "green" laundry detergent just got murkier.

I have been using Seventh Generation laundry detergent almost exclusively for about six months, and feeling pretty good about that, though I knew in my head I didn't really deserve to feel pretty good about it, since I simply picked it up because it was in the "green" section of my grocery store. It's the same kind of shortcut as voting the party line because you were too lazy to read up on the candidates (not that I've ever been guilty of that! not me!).

Cut to last weekend, when I ventured to a different grocery store. I was walking up the detergent aisle and two labels leapt off the shelf at me: One was for Purex Natural Elements, and the other was for Arm & Hammer Essentials. I'd never seen either of these products before, so I picked up both bottles and noticed that they shared "coconut-based surfactant" as a key ingredient.

OK, so a little less call for petroleum...a good thing, right? And my mind started turning over what it means (if anything) for some of the more traditional suppliers of detergents to begin offering greener alternatives.

A case of consumer demand making inroads into the manufacturers' consciousness? One would hope. Or a sop to shush up those consumers while these mega-manufacturers continue to rely on the same old (none-too-eco-friendly) brands as their flagship products? ("Hey, we're trying...yawn.") I am not a person who inherently distrusts all corporations as evil empires, but my healthy skepticism was activated.

Foggier and foggier

Well, lo and behold, turning my Seventh Generation bottle around at home revealed that its key ingredient, likewise, was derived from coconut. Now I was more confused...did this validate the new, big-brand offerings, or lessen the shine on my Seventh Gen stuff? Hmmm.

So off I went to Treehugger to see what they had to say. My search didn't reveal anything much about Purex's offering, but they definitely weren't thrilled about Arm & Hammer's product. Here is an excerpt from Arm and Hammer Essentials (not so fast!):

"Since they think 'Treehuggers' are their target market I think we should let them know that the product has some merits, but using palm kernel oil and coconut oil isn't one of them.

Reduced packaging is great. Reduced energy for transportation is great. Saving money is great. Using an ingredient that promotes the severe deforestation of Southeast and Pacific Asia, not so much... "

Uh, yikes! I knew there had to be a catch!

Coconut: Savior of the planet or...?

While trying to learn more about the coconut connection, I found another Treehugger reference to a "green" cleaner in another category -- Clorox's Green Works cleaners -- not being all it's cracked up to be, due to the coconut issue. Here are two excerpts from Introducing Clorox’s Green Works Cleaners:

"They say their alkyl polyglucoside comes from coconut oil and their ethanol and glycerine from corn oil; while that's better than using petroleum-derived alternatives, there are still major issues with rainforest habitat destruction relating to harvesting coconut oil ..."

"Treehugger's final take on that: "Green Works is better than a conventional alternative, but not perfect."

Anyway, I started to wonder why the coconut-based surfactant is bad for Arm & Hammer but OK for Seventh Generation -- at least from Treehugger’s perspective. Maybe there's some subtle difference that would only be known to chemists. I didn't find an answer so far, but I'm still looking.

So for those keeping score at home:

Purex, Arm & Hammer, Clorox and even (sniff) Seventh Generation will all receive an honorable Three Green Leaves due to their commitment to attempt to be more Earth friendly and the strides they are taking to get there ahead of the pack.

The jury is out, it would seem. Anyone have anything illuminating to say on this topic? I hope so! The takeaway here seems to be that we all need to do the legwork before assuming anything is really as good as it sounds. Sigh. I won't be pouring my Seventh Generation detergent down the drain (other than in the usual clothes-washing sense), but my feel-good vibe is not quite what it was, at least until proven otherwise.

Note: For a fairly detailed explanation of what to consider, in looking for laundry detergents, you can check out The Green Guide report and jump to its product comparison...however, there are not a lot of reviews in to date.