Sustainable detergents

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Laundering of clothing and fabric is a regular activity required for multitude of reasons, not least of which are maintaining hygiene, social decorum, appearance, and life time of the fabric. In industrialised countries, laundry is done with detergents using appliances such as tunnel washers or domestic washing machines, at temperatures well above room temperature using treated/purified water. In developing countries, often it is done by hand washing with water from local sources and some form of detergents. In both the cases, the detergent wastes are finally exposed to environment. Laundering is affected by four factors, often called Sinner's factors: (a) chemicals/detergents (b) temperature (c) time/duration (d) mechanical. It is an energy intensive and water consuming process, and the surfactants are often contaminative to ecosystem. By designing detergents with more than one surfactants, which acts synergistically, it is possible to (a) reduce the energy consumption by reducing washing temperature, (b) use less amount of water and (c) use less amount of detergent- all three are key for sustainability.