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Back in the day when we started looking into more environmentally friendly ways of doing our laundry (over 10 years ago now), the first thing we bought were laundry balls, which were a form of this:
Since then, there are a vast array of eco-friendly laundry products to choose from, including:
Of all of these, there are two which seem the most appealing to me: soap nuts and laundry balls (mostly because it's where we started although they fell out of use for us after about a year).
You'll find a lot of blog posts raving about how awesome both of these are.
But I figured that by now, there had to be some studies on these, so I started looking into it a bit more deeply.
Although most of the studies are from 2009-2012 and by now are old and need to be repeated, the consensus is that soap nuts and laundry balls do not wash clothes any better than if you were to wash them with just plain water.
So soap nuts and laundry balls are out as viable cleaning solutions for now.
The most promising solutions currently are the various types of natural detergents.
In the short term we are going to try EcoX - a Portuguese-based company making detergent from recycled oil . The main advantages being it can be bought in bulk sale shops (i.e. less packaging) and is locally produced so it's also environmentally friendly in terms of emissions.
1l = 28 doses.
Although there have been some reports of a thin 'film' being left on clothing, I can't actually find a list of ingredients for them and we will need to check its effect on waterways:
https://www.ecox.pt/
And also Mulieres - a Nordics based company, available in Portugal. The main advantages being the complete zero waste packaging, 99.97% natural ingredients and its suitability for sensitive skin (although it does include a small amount of glycerin) and it purports to do away with the need for fabric softener.
1.5l = 37 doses:
https://www.mulieres.eu/en/product/natural-concentrated-laundry-wash-nordic-forest-en/
Complementary laundry products
There are also a number of complementary laundry products which more research should also be done into.
Microfiber filters
The other major issue with laundry is microfibres being released from our clothing and polluting the water ways.
GUPPYFRIEND is a washing bag that you put all of your clothes into before going into the washing machine. It reduces the amount of fibres released and retains them rather than letting them get into the water system
Microfiber filters which appear to be the most expensive but are also a lot more effective at reducing microbers
Microber reducing laundry balls - Note that these are a different thing altogether to regular laundry balls that proport to wash your clothes; these are exclusively for catching microbers so that they can be disposed of correctly (for bow, this is in the trash which is better than waterways). These are less effective than full on filters (only removing 26%-31% of microbers) but are importantly accessible price-wise to a lot of people.
https://coraball.com/
This study in the Marine Pollution Bulletin summarised in this Forbes article, tests a specific microfiber filter (Lint LUV-R) - removes 90% of microfibers, probably the most effective solution at the moment - and the Cora Ball - removes 26-31% microfibers but proves both work.
If we were to install a filter, the Lint LUV-R seems much more sustainable (note the complex installation though) as the 'Planet Care' solution linked to above required constantly new filters (even though it is a Europe-based company).
The Cora Ball seems like a great 'immediate' purchase to help reduce the issue but the GUPPYFRIEND seems pretty impractical to me.
Other Products:
Citric Acid to replace a fabric softener, descaler or even as a brightener in a dishwasher
Bicarbonate of Soda to mix into your own at-home laundry detergent
Guar gum can also be used to mix into your own laundry detergent
This issue is open for anyone who wants to contribute/research on the subject!
iteles
commented
3 years ago
Back in the day when we started looking into more environmentally friendly ways of doing our laundry (over 10 years ago now), the first thing we bought were laundry balls, which were a form of this:
Since then, there are a vast array of eco-friendly laundry products to choose from, including:
Just as I finished this list I found this article which also has a nice summary and mentions different brands: https://www.sustainablejungle.com/zero-waste/zero-waste-laundry-detergent/
Of all of these, there are two which seem the most appealing to me: soap nuts and laundry balls (mostly because it's where we started although they fell out of use for us after about a year). You'll find a lot of blog posts raving about how awesome both of these are. But I figured that by now, there had to be some studies on these, so I started looking into it a bit more deeply.
The two best resources for this are:
There are lots of other articles on the subject though:
And more.
So soap nuts and laundry balls are out as viable cleaning solutions for now.
The most promising solutions currently are the various types of natural detergents.
In the short term we are going to try EcoX - a Portuguese-based company making detergent from recycled oil . The main advantages being it can be bought in bulk sale shops (i.e. less packaging) and is locally produced so it's also environmentally friendly in terms of emissions. 1l = 28 doses. Although there have been some reports of a thin 'film' being left on clothing, I can't actually find a list of ingredients for them and we will need to check its effect on waterways: https://www.ecox.pt/
And also Mulieres - a Nordics based company, available in Portugal. The main advantages being the complete zero waste packaging, 99.97% natural ingredients and its suitability for sensitive skin (although it does include a small amount of glycerin) and it purports to do away with the need for fabric softener. 1.5l = 37 doses: https://www.mulieres.eu/en/product/natural-concentrated-laundry-wash-nordic-forest-en/
Complementary laundry products
There are also a number of complementary laundry products which more research should also be done into.
Microfiber filters
The other major issue with laundry is microfibres being released from our clothing and polluting the water ways.
This study in the Marine Pollution Bulletin summarised in this Forbes article, tests a specific microfiber filter (Lint LUV-R) - removes 90% of microfibers, probably the most effective solution at the moment - and the Cora Ball - removes 26-31% microfibers but proves both work.
If we were to install a filter, the Lint LUV-R seems much more sustainable (note the complex installation though) as the 'Planet Care' solution linked to above required constantly new filters (even though it is a Europe-based company). The Cora Ball seems like a great 'immediate' purchase to help reduce the issue but the GUPPYFRIEND seems pretty impractical to me.
Other Products:
This issue is open for anyone who wants to contribute/research on the subject!