DETERGENT cakes and washing powders have become an inseparable part of every consumer’s life. The market offers a variety of washing powders, each brand claiming to wash the cleanest at unbeatable prices to consumers. Detergents, however, exert a hidden but taxing cost on the environment and consumer health due to their environment-damaging properties.
Phosphates are one of the main ingredients in most present-day detergents and are also the primary culprits in polluting water bodies and causing accelerated eutrophication — a situation in water bodies like lakes, rivers and ponds which results in ultimate death of the water system. Undoubtedly, phosphates (STTP — sodium tripolyphosphate — the most commonly used phosphate in detergents) beef up a detergent’s cleaning properties by softening hard water and preventing carbonates from settling on the clothes washed, but once the washing is done, phosphates wreak havoc on the environment when they are washed down the drain
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