If you go to any grocery store, Wal Mart or other such supercenter, you will find a whole aisle of laundry products in all shapes, sizes and scents. There is chemical detergent, chemical liquid fabric softener, chemical bleach and chemical disposable dryer sheets. Washing machines are not perfect, and they invariably leave these detergents and fragerences behind where they can irritate your nose and skin. The rest goes right down the drain, heading off into the water table where it eventually arrives at the bays, rivers and reservoirs. As with many other things, the amount produced from a single household is not significant, however when you add up the waste produced by every household in the locality, region, or country it is a huge mess - and another easily avoidable one.
By going to the natural foods market or the internet rather than the local supercenter or grocery store to choose your product, you will find many options not available through the most common laundry product vendors. These products may just be natural, low environmental, hypo-allergenic versions of the same products you find in the store or they may be unique products that take a bit of getting used to, but in the end are really the best products for you and the planet.
The Best - reusable, compostable and natural
My personal favorite of all the natural laundry soaps is not a manufactured product at all. Soap nuts come from soapberry trees and are 100% natural and sustainable because it does not damage the tree for the nuts to be removed. The nuts have a sticky coating that contains saporin, a natural soap that is also used in Ayurvedic medicine for various illnesses including eczema and psoraisis. That is what first attracted me - my husband has eczema and is sensitive to many detergents. I'm not going to say that changing to soap nuts cured him, but he has improved due to the replacement of an irritant with a healing agent. The soap nuts look just like those in the photo - about the size of an acorn and covered with a thick, black, sticky coating, they give off an odor that goes away once the coating dissolves in water. You place 2-4 nuts in a cotton bag depending on whether you wash in cold or hot water and if you use cold water, the nuts will last for 3-4 washes. As the nuts dissolve, you can see the suds in the water and your clothes come out fresh, clean and odorless without the residue of manufactured soaps. When the nuts are spent, simply toss them into your yard or compost where they will decompose like any other nut and enrich the soil.
If you're anything like me, you need more than soap sometimes. Oxy-clean was one of my favorites since I am very sensitive to bleach products, but even oxy-clean has chemical additives. There is a natural solution that is just as effective without the chemicals. Personally, I like Bio-Kleen's citrus oxygen bleach, which can be ordered by the case here on the subscribe and save program for a substantial discount. For stain removal, I again prefer Bio-Kleen because they have powerful, concentrated products and less packaging means less waste and lower price. Bac-out (shown here in the gallon jug, although it is also available in smaller bottles or a 5 gallon tub for those that use a whole lot) uses enzymes to destroy stains and fight bacteria. It can be used for cleaning many other things around the house as well, eliminating the need for a lot of cleaning products you may otherwise purchase separately.
But what about softeners? Liquid fabric softener has the same obvious drawbacks as manufactured soaps, but I also always used dryer sheets. Although they don't seem like much of a problem, aside from being yet another piece of refuse that ends up in the landfill, they can be a fire hazard in your laundry room if you do not carefully dispose of them after each load. Even worse, the chemicals used in many dryer sheets appear on the EPA's hazardous waste list! They probably wouldn't sell too many if they put that on the box. There is another option that many people have never heard about. These dryer balls last a long time and can just be left in the dryer between loads so they are always there. Although there are many low cost dryer balls available, I like Nellie's Dryer Balls because they are a well-made, long lasting product, which to me makes them worth the extra $5-10. Dryer balls alone work great for the spring, summer and fall, but if you have a cold, dry winter climate, you probably have trouble with static. This reusable static eliminator takes care of that and lasts for 500 loads (figuring about 2 loads per week that's 5 years).
Other Eco-friendly Options (if you're not ready to go all the way yet)
While the aforementioned options are undeniably the best way to go, there are other options for people that aren't ready to go all the way, or find some of the other options don't work for them. These are eco-friendly, organic detergents, fabric softeners (liquid or sheet) and stain removers. Buying concentrated is the best for both your cost and the environment, so again I suggest Bio-Kleen as my first choice product. Available as powder, cold water liquid, all temperature liquid or free and clear liquid, there is a product to meet every need. Seventh Generation, Natural Value, Nellies, Laundress and many other natural product manufacturers also make similar products, though they will not always be concentrated and you will have to buy them more often and thus either pay more for shipping or use more fuel going to and from the store and discard more waste. Seventh Generation also makes liquid fabric softener (as do many other natural products manufacturers) and Laundress makes these dryer sheets and stain remover bars.
Whatever you decide to use, by choosing a natural product you will be taking better care of your skin, your health and the environment. You also might even save a few dollars by ditching the dryer sheets or fabric softener and buying in bulk.
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