Easy. Economical. Ecological.
I am trying to live more ‘clean’ and I heard about non-detergent laundry balls. WHAT? How exactly do you get clothes clean without detergent and why?
OK –
First the WHY? I use detergent free of chemicals and dyes, but I didn’t know if it was ‘safe’.
I read, “Many so-called ‘eco-friendly’ laundry detergents contain SLS and SLES which are lethal to fresh water fish at 7ppm (parts per million) and do not break down well in the environment.”
Was my detergent killing the fishies (SIGH!)? No! But, most are and I read this article that helped me understand the benefits of using a green detergent and made me glad we made the switch many years ago: http://grist.org/article/its-a-wash/
Think of all that laundry, those cloth diapering families and ones like mine who usually do a load every other day. Or more!
Now just imagine if everyone made the switch…
If every household in the U.S. replaced their 50 oz. petroleum-based laundry detergent with one SmartKlean Laundry Ball, we could save 1,165,000 barrels of oil – enough to heat and cool 67,000 U.S. homes for a year!
If every household in the U.S. replaced a year’s worth of polyester fabric softener sheets with the SmartKlean Laundry Ball, and recycled after use, we could prevent 29,600 tons of solid waste from entering our landfills, equivalent to 3,120 garbage trucks!
BUT – no detergent? Really? What’s the catch?!?
OK, now we are getting down to it. I am not a scientist so the molecular water structures and how the clusters in the recyclable laundry ball work to clean water is not my forte, so I’m just going to link to the website’s ‘How To’ page http://www.smartklean.com/html/how_it_works.html for all those smarter than me. Now, that said, there is a catch in things like brightening, stain removing, etc. if you use the ball. Adding things like Borax or hydrogen peroxide is necessary if you want WHITES to be brighter without hurting our animals waterways and green stain removing items – yes, SmartKlean makes their own, is important. If you really want to get to know your laundry, the SmartKlean website has all sort of information and links to their blog on things like how to use lemon and salt to do whitening and stain removing, too. Hey, I want to be green, but the time does add up.
Does it work? YES. You almost become one with the ball; knowing when to wash and dry it to make it more effective. Adding essential oils for fragrance. Is this the wave of the future? I think so. As someone who used to live next door to a Superfund site (toxic waste dump that the EPA inspects, basically) I have seen the damage that polluted waters can do. It affects everyone.
List Price: $ 45.00 (365 washes)
Momma's Bacon 