Hunt for Laundry Detergent Ingredients in Vancouver

March 23, 2007 – 3:09 pm

I started the hunt for ingredients for my homemade detergent experiment today. I found Borax at Safeway ($6.49 CDN) and London Drugs ($4.99 CDN). Safeway also had washing soda by Arm & Hammer but it smelt like it was perfumed which I’d rather stay away from. No luck finding Fels Naptha Soap yet. I did find some Sunlight bar soap at Safeway that would work but it came in a plastic package that couldn’t be recycled or composted so my hunt continues. I think I need to find an old time pharmacy as the mainstream ones only carry Tide and it’s competitors.

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Homemade Laundry Detergent

March 22, 2007 – 8:44 am

I stumbled into No Impact Man via TreeHugger today and became inspired to try something new. I love what 7th Generation and other eco cleaning product suppliers are doing doing vs conventional products but the bottom line is that they are all pricy, come in a petroleum based plastic bottle, must be trucked and then IF facilities exist, recycled. I am aware that some detergents come in a cardboard box but the eco ones I have tried haven’t performed as well as the liquid detergents.

In an effort to reduce my waste toward zero, I am going to experiment with making my own laundry detergent. After a little googlin around, there appears to be a tried and true process using common inexpensive ingredients which is supposed to work very well. Most of the recipies I found are almost the same or slight variations. Cost can apparently be as low as $0.01 per load. I’ll post again with the results soon!

References

http://www.thefrugalshopper.com/articles/FAQs.shtml
http://www.thefrugalshopper.com/articles/detergent.shtml
More recipies (scroll way down)

[tags]Zero Waste, Homemade Laundry Detergent, Urban Homesteading[/tags]

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