We started Bloop to create an all-natural laundry soap that smells amazing, but is gentle both on our kids as well as our mother earth. As parents we would strive to do all that we could to reduce our impact on the environment, but it took a lot of effort to find a great laundry soap product that was truly sustainable. There are so many things to consider in the purchases we make, and the first thing we needed to do was to educate ourselves.
Environmental impacts of laundry detergent can be placed into two broad categories:
1) CHEMICAL IMPACTS:
The average person has been growing increasingly aware of harmful chemicals and additives in everyday products that we all use, and everybody by now has heard about the plastic trash crisis happening globally. However, one common category of household cleaners that is often overlooked for chemical impact on the environment is laundry soap. We all use it and the majority of the byproducts from the laundry process get sent down our drains and into treatment facilities before getting released back into our water ways (rivers, lakes and oceans). Many of these chemicals pose a serious threat to aquatic life. What are these harmful chemicals? We are glad you asked.
Phosphates:
This harmful chemical is a major no-no for both humans and the environment. At worst, in humans, these cause cancer and are hormonal disruptors and at best they cause irritation and burns to skin. Phosphates are equally damaging to aquatic life. Excess phosphates in laundry detergent run-off leads to large algae blooms in fresh water and coastal ecosystems. These algae blooms create extreme low levels of oxygen in the water which in turn leads to all aquatic life in the affected areas dying causing dead zones in the environment. Bloop does not use any phosphates in our all-natural laundry soap.
Chemical surfactants:
Surfactants are a key component of laundry (and other cleaning) soaps, as these basically help to separate the oils and dirt from the surface of clothes and put it in suspension (i.e. in the bubbles and wash solution) preventing the redeposition on clothes. However, many studies have shown how synthetic surfactants break down the surface tension of water ways which allows many more pollutants to enter water shed systems. These pollutants can include: pesticides, motor oils, and even air born pollutants. All of these have negative and sometimes severe effects on the environment and aquatic life. The surfactants that we use at Bloop are plant-derived, biodegradable and gentle on all skin types.
SLS (Sodium lauryl sulfate):
SLS is the most common surfactant found in many laundry soap brands although most consumers do not realize that is a major toxin to the environment and to human use. SLS has only recently been studied in depth and has been discovered to be a harmful chemical in many ways. More and more scientific articles are just recently publishing about its serious and acute impacts on aquatic life in addition to its negative impacts on all cellular growth. We simply ask that you start to read the labels on your laundry and cleaning products and seek out product alternatives that purposely do not use SLS, such as Bloop Laundry Soap.
Formaldehyde:
Formaldehyde is a common additive in many laundry detergent brands for its antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. This is a known carcinogen and environmental hazard. It contaminates drinking water for human consumption, has been known to cause lung hemorrhages in bird species, inhibits tree and plant growth, and is toxic to fish and other marine life. Bloop would never use this scary and harmful chemical.
Chlorine and Bleach:
Both Chlorine and Bleach produce many dangerous byproducts when they come in contact with different types of organic matter. Some of these new byproducts are dioxins, furans, and oranochlorines and all of these are known to be harmful to human health and have negative environmental impacts.
Phthalates:
The impact of Phthalates on wildlife is similar to the way it affects humans. These impacts can be disrupting hormones, reproduction decline and development, and high toxicity to all watershed and waterway life.
Optical brighteners:
Optical brighteners are dyes that are commonly used in many laundry detergent brands to help boost the white colors in laundry and mask yellows. Many of these dyes are unable to be processed by living organisms and may cause bioaccumulation.
2) PACKAGING IMPACTS:
Laundry and household cleaning products need to be packaged and shipped in something, and over the years clever marketers and product developers have always tried to make this category fun and sexy. However most of these novel ideas do create a harmful impact on the environment.
Pods and Laundry Sheets:
While these options are intended to lessen the impact on the environment and reduce the amount of weight getting shipped around in big delivery trucks, at the end of the day these both contain microplastics and end up doing more harm than good. Microplastics affect all aspects of the environment. Soil contaminated with microplastics can retain pesticides and heavy metals for longer periods of time affecting plant and tree growth patterns. Microplastics in marine environments often starts in the smallest animals getting stuck in the digestive tracts causing trauma and death. Much like in soil, the microplastics in marine environments can absorb and retain toxins and work its way up the food chain all the way into foods for human consumption. And more and more research is coming out about how much our bodies are absorbing microplastics and how this is not a good thing.
Plastic bottles:
By now, we all know the extreme amount of plastic trash filling up in landfills, water ways, and our oceans. Only 5% of plastic is actually getting recycled. Big, bulky plastic laundry bottles account for a huge percentage of this waste as we all do laundry and most brands don't offer any other options for packaging.
Conclusion:
As initially stated, our mission at Bloop has been to create an amazing all-natural laundry soap that smells incredible. After months of research and development, we discovered all-natural and watershed-safe fragrance oils and formulated our all-natural yet effective laundry soap with the best all-natural alternatives to the harmful chemicals above. The result is a laundry soap that never contains SLS, phthalates, phosphates, dyes, bleach, chlorine, or freaking Formaldehyde, and is never packaged and shipped in plastic jugs or in pods made of microplastics. Bloop is specially formulated to be safe on both human and marine life safe. We are parents that care about the future for our kids! We want to help you clean your clothes, not dirty the environment.
