Environment 911

A Switch Worth Making: Helping Our Environment by Switching to Biodegradable Soap

As the earth becomes more and more heavily populated, the necessity to live a conscientious, ecologically sound lifestyle becomes ever more important. While habits like waste reduction, reuse of sound materials, and recycling of certain kinds of refuse are important and are already steps in the right direction, people can often improve their ecological footprint with minor switches in their buying habits. One such minor modification is the switch to biodegradable soaps for use in the home. Traditional soaps leave behind chemicals in the soil that can actually cause long-term environmental harm when they build up. There are many kinds of biodegradable soaps available, and making the switch is often painless, and provides some relief to our already strained ecosystems.

In choosing a soap today, most people consider price and effectiveness of their soap above all else. After all, if the soap doesn't clean, it won't do much good. But what most people don't know is that the environmental impact of soap is far greater than they may realize. The recent trend of parents and businesses to use anti-bacterial soaps out of health concerns may be leading to the long-term degradation of many ecological processes. In his research, Arizona State University Engineering Expert Rolf Halden has discovered that, since the 1950s, most soaps have come to contain an increasing amount of certain chemicals that are difficult, if not impossible for the environment to break down. These chemicals, triclosan and triclocarban, are present in 60% of the nation's rivers. Water treatment plants have no real way of filtering out these chemicals, and they often end up watering the same crops that we rely on to survive. These chemicals then end up in food products and in our bodies, where they persist and build up, causing further harm to our bodies over time. Even babies are not safe from the chemicals, and are often exposed to it directly from their mother's breast milk. Furthermore, the use of these chemicals may actually contribute to the replication of hardier strains of bacteria, since they persist so long in the environment. (http://asunews.asu.edu/20110215_halden_triclosanbriefing)

Since these chemicals are so difficult to break down by natural environmental processes, and because trying to filter them out of our water supply has proven to be ineffective, switching to a biodegradable alternative is the logical next step. Companies like Method, Seventh Generation, and Mrs. Meyer's have based their soap product lines around biodegradable, eco-friendly ingredients that will not cause long-term adverse effects. The attention to ingredient lists ultimately falls on the consumer, however, since he or she should know what components make up the soap that he or she chooses. (http://www.mnn.com/health/healthy-spaces/stories/biodegradable-soap)

Biodegradable soaps should contain several ingredients in order to be effective, such as lauryl alcohol and sodium lauryl sulfate, both of which are naturally occurring. These soaps and detergents should be generally free of phosphates and synthetic ingredients that will build up in the environment. Veer away from products that tout themselves as anti-bacterial, mostly because they tend to contain the aforementioned triclosan. Lastly, make sure you're not using these products in areas with groundwater that is ingested by local wildlife. Even with biodegradable soap, it still contains surfactants that remain harmful to wildlife until they are broken down by naturally-occurring bacteria and enzymes. (http://www.livestrong.com/article/173163-biodegradable-soap-ingredients/)

Ultimately, there are no easy solutions when it comes to cleansing our environment of the build-up of chemicals over the years, but we can take steps in our daily lives to make sure our green living habits contribute to a healthier planet, simply by making a switch to biodegradable soap.