Nowadays, entire families are dragged into the sorry business of environment destruction. How? Through the use of detergents. So if you wish to be an environment-caring family, one of the most important things you may have to change is the use of unwanted chemicals to clean your clothes.

I know very few urban families today that do not rely upon huge quantities of detergents for cleaning their clothes in washing machines. Maybe they can be forgiven because they have not been told what detergents contain.

Most detergents have a bewildering variety of chemicals which manufacturers exploit to promise clothes clean enough for God. The bulk of these detergents contain phosphate, a chemical which eventually gets into water bodies, streams, rivers, and oceans where it causes large scale ecological imbalance. In lakes, for example, phosphates lead to a process known as “eutropication” which eventually kills the lake and all life within it.

In addition to phosphate, detergents also contain additives including whitening agents, bleaching agents, perfumers, foam regulators, etc. Some of these chemicals will cause rashes and irritation (allergies) when used frequently, so they are also harmful to personal health.

Let me therefore give you three options which will enable you to get out of this role of environment polluter and wash your clothes in future with a clean conscience:

Detergents without phosphate

The first, easiest and most direct option is to choose detergents that don’t use phosphates as a base. Over the last few years the Henko brand available in Indian markets is probably the only detergent that does not use phosphates at all. Reason: the headquarters of the company is in Germany where authorities chew off your brains and bank accounts if you distribute and sell environment degraders. Because of its technology, Henko is more expensive when compared to others in the market. I am not recommending any specific brand. There may be other detergents in the market which also do not use phosphate. Using them as well would be equally welcome.

Alternative cleansing agents

In the May issue of Prevention, I introduced readers to the revolutionary cleansing liquid called EM (based on “Effective Microorganisms”). One of the interesting properties of EM is its ability to clean clothes. With EM, the clothes not only come out cleaner, they come out softer as well. You can either put a small quantity of activated EM directly in your washing machine and let it run or you can soak your clothes in EM in a bucket the previous night and then rinse them out or run them through the washing machine in the morning.

Traditional cleansing agents

Before the detergent revolution ran away with our affections, many people used a product that is made by trees: soapnuts.

Soapnuts can be used fairly easily in washing machines. We begin to wonder why this country ever switched over to chemical-based detergents when it could meet all its washing needs by growing more soapnut trees. There is in fact today a steady import of soapnuts from India by the rest of the world by people who don’t want to use detergents in their washing machines. I know of farmers who now grow acres of soapnut trees solely for soapnut export.

Soapnuts are best used in washing machines in a small muslin bag in which you can put 3-4 nuts. If the clothes are very dirty, use two bags. (You are advised not to use these tiny bags for bed sheets since the sheets will smother the bag and the action of spreading the soap will be inhibited.) But for all other pieces of clothing, soapnuts remain ideal and cheap.

What is more they give the clothes a very nice fresh flavor since a soapnut wash will only reflect its natural ingredients.

You can purchase soapnuts from local bazaars or from green stores if they are stocked there, but there is one source of processed soapnut powder which has emerged recently in Chennai. You can order directly from the source (Preethi Sukumaran, Krya Producers, 57 Solaiappa Street, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004; ph: 044-4204-9292; www.facebook.com/kryagoodies). The packet comes with two small cloth bags in which you insert the powdered soapnut and then dump it in with the clothes.

If you are using either EM or soapnut, the waste water from the washing machine can be used safely (and with benefit) for the plants in your garden or for your lawns. That’s the double benefit from washing with a clean conscience. 

(Published in Prevention Magazine of the India Today Group)