Walking around the drugstore shelves these days, you can see so many different detergents. In the confusion of abundance, you often get confused. Fortunately, there are many online portals to help, with just a few clicks you can find out about washing powders, different recycled packaging detergents, environmentally friendly rinse concentrates. However, one type of product has been lurking on the shelves for decades, a product that is in fact found in every laundry room, making our grandmothers' hands soft in our memories: laundry soaps.
However, one type of product has been lurking on the shelves for decades, a product that is in fact found in every laundry room, making our grandmothers' hands soft in our memories: laundry soaps.
We've all probably used them at least once or twice to remove stains, or to clean hand-washed clothes and shoes. But you'd never guess that there's so much more to laundry soap than that.
There are several reasons why conscious shoppers take this product from the shelves. For one thing, we live in a time when the price of products is a major factor in our choice, and more elaborately made washing soaps, for example, cost several times, even three times, more than washing soap. There are small companies that market home-made laundry soap in the form of blocks and granules, the packaging and ingredients of which are of course the least harmful to the environment, but the price of small quantities is proportionally more expensive than larger quantities, and the products packaged in granules are not proportionately worth the price of the blocks.
But the most important aspect is the environment.
Liquid soaps and detergents leave a 25% larger carbon footprint than their block counterparts, because the production of liquid materials requires more chemical raw materials and processes, and about seven times as much time. In total, this means seven times more energy and carbon emissions. In terms of the ecological footprint of both raw materials and the transport of products from abroad, liquid products are more damaging, as they are largely water by volume. In fact, the biggest difference is the packaging: block soaps are generally available in paper boxes or in small foil packs to prevent oxidation. However, rinses, washing gels and liquids are, by definition, sold exclusively in plastic. While paper cans are 100% recyclable, plastic bottles and sachets are not always, depending on their composition and type, so there is no guarantee of fully recyclable packaging for some brands' products.
Protecting aquatic wildlife, including ensuring the cleanliness of our waters, is a very urgent and important task in nature conservation. Perhaps the biggest advantage of laundry soaps is that they are completely biodegradable in water. Their alkaline chemistry acts as a water softener and they mix completely with the water in the environment, without harming the water and the aquatic environment. In contrast, detergents and washing powders contain high levels of phosphate, which, although naturally occurring, can upset and damage the balance of the pre-water balance in a whole city's wash. These detergents in general, even despite advertising, unfortunately contain 40% of this non-degradable and harmful substance.
If you want to become a conscious consumer and are determined to buy laundry soap, one question remains:
when will we have time to do so much washing by hand?!
It's simple: you can use the laundry soap in its grated state, whipped up in your washing machine. Depending on the amount of load, you can also grate it for one wash, so you use just as much as you need each time. It's important to dissolve it in water, as the shavings can sit directly in the corners of larger garments and not have any effect. The dissolved shavings are poured onto the clothes and will foam up in the washing machine during washing. The solution can also be mixed with washing soda and then used with vinegar instead of rinse aid if you don't want to subsidise big drugstore brands more. If you want to make your own home laundry liquid in advance, dissolve half a grated bar of washing soap, about 100g, in 5L of water.
Fortunately, more and more people are choosing laundry soaps in block form, but one product has been on the market for decades, spanning generations. With a pleasant lemon fragrance, it washes all types of clothes clean, whether pre-washing, grating in the washing machine or spot-cleaning. This is Caola Laundry Soap.
Look for it at our partners in drugstores and department stores!
