Washing machine detergent?

[colinnorth]

I have been using Aldi Almat washing sachet thingies in my washing machine BUT I have just read the warnings on the box and it says it is very bad for the aquatic environment.

What detergent, preferably sachet style are people using that are more friendly to the aquatic environment?

C

[Mikexx]

Most people advocate phosphate free if you're going to discharge directly into the canal.

 

I'm sure any detergent conforming to that will have on the package "low phosphate" or "phosphate free".

 

Their Almat range is quite extensive, so can't tell at a glance the issue. I guess all detergents aren't good for the environment but perhaps some are better than others?

[PeterF]

My wife buys the ecover brand washing detergent and washing up liquid (but it is not sachet) as it is meant to be more eco friendly.

[Alan de Enfield]

Eco friendly generally means it's only about 50% as polluting as the 'old stuff', but you have to use 3x as much of it because it doesn't wash as well, so not only does it become a much higher price per wash, but you are actually  putting 50% more pollutant into the water that using the original powder that 'works'.

 

 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

10 hours ago, colinnorth said:

BUT I have just read the warnings on the box

There's the problem. An obvious solution suggests itself. 😀

9 hours ago, PeterF said:

My wife buys the ecover brand washing detergent and washing up liquid (but it is not sachet) as it is meant to be more eco friendly.

When the brand first came out in the UK around thirty years ago it had pictures of dolphins on the packaging. I assumed at the time that this was because it was made from dolphin blubber. At least that was what I told my Mum, who had started buying it and still does. 😀

Fortunately, she knows not to believe anything I ever tell her.

 

Ecover is now owned by Belcher Toxic Chemicals PLC S C Johnson and Son, an American multinational, with plenty of non-green products in their line up.

[mrsmelly]

9 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Eco friendly generally means it's only about 50% as polluting as the 'old stuff', but you have to use 3x as much of it because it doesn't wash as well, so not only does it become a much higher price per wash, but you are actually  putting 50% more pollutant into the water that using the original powder that 'works'.

 

 

Much the same as so called " Lo salt " on yer chips.

[colinnorth]

Thank you all for your input.

Having read a number of adverts for 'Eco' style products I find that the 'Eco' bit usually refers to the packaging that the product comes in rather than the product itself. 'Eco' products usually bang on about: Ours come in a cardboard box - no plastics etc.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

45 minutes ago, colinnorth said:

Thank you all for your input.

Having read a number of adverts for 'Eco' style products I find that the 'Eco' bit usually refers to the packaging that the product comes in rather than the product itself. 'Eco' products usually bang on about: Ours come in a cardboard box - no plastics etc.

The word greenwashing is particularly appropriate for this thread.

A bit like an airport that has expanded and will be hosting loads more aeroplanes burning thousands of gallons of fossil fuel Jet A, but has a few solar panels on the terminal building to make it "carbon neutral".

[cuthound]

When I bought a share in my first shareboat, about 30 years ago, one of the co-owners was an industrial chemist. He said that Ecover, which at the time proudly advertised that its products were phosphate free, was a con, because dishwasher tablets were the only domestic detergent products which had phosphates in them.

 

It was green washing then and it still is.

Edited May 23, 2023 by cuthound
grandma

[Machpoint005]

Smol.

 

Available on line.

 

 

[colinnorth]

Thanks, just looked up Smol - they want to deliver me on a regular basis. Will have to think how that would work.

[MtB]

4 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

The word greenwashing is particularly appropriate for this thread.

A bit like an airport that has expanded and will be hosting loads more aeroplanes burning thousands of gallons of fossil fuel Jet A, but has a few solar panels on the terminal building to make it "carbon neutral".

 

Many years ago I did some work for a woman with a brand new Ford something-or-other and she had totally bought into the greenwash marketing puff to the extent she believed that by driving it, she was actually reducing pollution. 

 

I realised this when she mentioned to me she was going out, walking to the shops. Then she changed her mind and said "oh no I'd better take the car, need to do my bit to help the environment". I was all like WTF? The out it all came, how driving her new Ford reduces pollution. 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

6 hours ago, colinnorth said:

Thank you all for your input.

Having read a number of adverts for 'Eco' style products I find that the 'Eco' bit usually refers to the packaging that the product comes in rather than the product itself. 'Eco' products usually bang on about: Ours come in a cardboard box - no plastics etc.

Eco on a label describing a product has no basis in law. you could resell red diesel at 10P a litre mark up and call it Eco Diesel. 

[Machpoint005]

5 hours ago, colinnorth said:

Thanks, just looked up Smol - they want to deliver me on a regular basis. Will have to think how that would work.

 

Once you have received your first pack you can postpone the next if you're not getting through them.