Eco-friendly soap

Natural is always the best!

 

There’s little shortage of scientific proof why you should wash with eco-friendly soap rather than synthetically produced antibacterial soap, which can be detrimental to both your health and the environment’s.

 

Even those who exclusively clean with biodegradable soap at home, however, may at some point be faced with a dilemma: being exposed to potentially contagious germs (think: shaking hands with someone at a party who just sneezed, or going to the bathroom in an airport) or cleaning their hands with, say, antibacterial soap.

 

Assuming your immune system is strong, if you don’t have access to eco-friendly soap outside your home, consider risking exposure to some bacteria rather than using non-biodegradable soap, especially antibacterial varieties, which may:

 

• Weaken your immune system
• Decrease fertility
• Alter hormones
• Cause birth defects

 

Triclosan found in several products, declared ‘toxic’ by the EPA: The Orthodontic Cyber Journal reports that triclosan, developed about 30 years ago, is found in many household products, including popular name-brand soaps. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has registered triclosan, found in anti-microbial and anti-bacterial-marketed soaps, as a pesticide.

 

Studies, such as one published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have also proven that triclosan negatively impacts cardiac and skeletal muscle health. Another study in Toxological Sciences concluded that triclosan impaired thyroid hormones in rats.

 

 

A common ingredient in eco-friendly soap [here’s an example of a soap that helps preserves orangutan habitat] is lye. If you need an environmentally friendly upgrade to your home, also consider soaps that are made exclusively from plant oils and do not contain animal-derived sources, common in most leading brand-name soaps.

 

Home-grown eco-friendly soap: If you want to make your own home-made eco-friendly soap, one way to do so requires just three ingredients: water, oil and lye.

 

There are also online recipes for shea butter soap and many other varieties of eco-friendly soap. Just remember to pack some with you next time you’re out and about.

 

Easy homemade soap

Here is some general homemade soap information

Soap is made in two parts, lye and water, plus a mixture of oilw. The two don't combine easily, so they must be brought to similar temperatures. Lye and water get very hot when mixed, so the mixture must cool before being added to the oils.

The oils must be gently heated. The oil is nowhere near hot enough to cook with, but still, please do not start any fires. Every oil has a different saponification index, which is a measure of how much lye is required to turn that oil into soap. This means, if you run out of coconut oil, don't go replacing it with olive oil.