Perhaps it seems like Our Daily Green has been a little fixated on soap lately. We've had to do so much research on the no soap challenge then the laundry detergent giveaway, that our brain is a little sudsy!
But here is a very simple consideration that will save you money and the environment. Get away from as much liquid soap as you can. What is the NUMBER ONE INGREDIENT in liquid soap? Water. Yes, dear readers, you are paying for ... water. Which is something you can add from your tap. Think back to the days of soap dishes and washcloths. A day before poofs, shower gels, soap dispensers. Remember the good old fashioned bar of soap. Remember how long it lasted. Remember chopping the soap slivers and making new bars of soap that look like confetti? Another hint is to save soap slivers in the end of an old pair of pantyhose.
ABC's Good Morning America tested liquid soap and bar soap to compare effectiveness and discovered that technique is the only difference in germ fighting. The best guideline is to wash hands for at least 20 seconds according to the Center for Disease Control.
Liquid soap is generally sold in plastic bottles that are not environmentally friendly. As we have stressed in the past, just because certain plastics (#1, #2) can be recycled, it doesn't mean they become the same product again. In other words, to get more plastic soap containers, virgin resources are still depleted. Recycled plastic becomes something completely different, like carpet or polar fleece. Look around your house at all the bottles of soap products, from laundry soap, to dishwasher soap, to body wash, to hand soap. I have to laugh when I see the "concentrated liquids/use less", because really, they just have less WATER. We've been conned into paying yet again for water.
Read the ingredients. Every single bottle the first ingredient is WATER. Switch back to bar or powdered soap. You're already adding water to activate the soap, why pay so much extra for it to have it pre-added? Save your money, a lot of packaging and the environment. Stop using liquid soap whenever you can.
2 comments :
Love this post. I am adding this idea to "ecosize my life list".
Brilliant!! Awhile back I was thinking about laundry detergents and it seems to me that one gets a lot more for the money if they buy powdered vs. liquid ... and in most cases, powdered laundry detergent comes in Eco-friendly boxes. So lets see ... it's frugal, better for the earth, cleans efficiently ... seems like a "no-brainer". Thanks for sharing!
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