WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN SOAPS AND CLEANERS Let's talk briefly about surfactants and detergents, or as we like to call them, soap. In the simplest possible terms, surfactants make water "wetter" by reducing the surface tension of the water, while the detergents chemically bond with and loosen soil from the surface being cleaned, allowing the "wetter" water to flush it all away. All soaps are essentially made from fats (animal or vegetable) or oils (vegetable or petroleum) with an alkali — once, primarily wood ash lye, but they're usually synthetic these days — that neutralizes the fatty acids to produce, well, soap. Sodium soaps are made using caustic soda — sodium hydroxide — for the alkali. This makes a "hard" soap. The other alkali, caustic potash — potassium hydroxide — makes a potassium or "soft" soap, the sort of thing you'd find in liquid hand soaps, laundry detergents and household cleaning products. Water itself is a potent cleaner, but soap, in minimal quantities, just allows it to work better. Let's just say that a little soap can go a long way. When you're shopping for a cleaning product, the thing to remember is "less is more." Look for readily biodegradable (i.e., breaks down within 30 to 90 days) vegetable-based surfactants such as coconut, hemp, palm or corn oils. They won't irritate your skin, and they do the same job as their scarier, synthetic toxic counterparts. If you're looking for a good de-greaser and all-purpose cleaner, check out d-limonene, a citrus-based solvent from orange peel extract. Combined with vegetable-based surfactants and additives like grapefruit seed extract, it'll tackle the toughest jobs, including mildew. A little goes a very long way, and it biodegrades quickly. Things You Don't Want:
Things You Do:
Eco-Packaging:
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