Laundry Products Research

Welcome to the 2009 round of laundry products testing and reporting
From a range of powder laundry detergents purchased between September and December 2008, analysis of the wash water from those products resulted in samples mixed for 42 front loaders and 47 top loaders. Of those products, 18 detergents were marked as suitable for both front and top loader and were tested for both. The results of the analysis are presented under separate headings for each of the various components and the comments are intended to indicate potential effects upon soil and/or plants.

You will notice a NEW format to some of the pages - with an "Overview" page for an assortment of product choices.
Only powder product information is available at present. Liquid analysis is currently being analysed.

What was bought or sourced
Of the 71 products tested, most were purchased from the three major supermarkets in Armidale (Coles, Woolworths, IGA), and a small number of samples received from manufacturers of boutique products with whom Lanfax Labs had contact over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, some products were unavailable to us such as the ALDI products because there is no ALDI store in Armidale. Several manufacturers of non-supermarket available products declined the offer to participate. A couple of products are absent from the photograph below because they were purchased at a later date. An attempt was made to at least buy all the products readily available on the supermarket shelves. Not all products were available in 1 kg packs at the time of purchase.

Funding of research
This website is neither Government nor Industry sponsored. The research is funded entirely from Lanfax Laboratories' own resources. No funding was sought and no funding has been received from any outside source. Those products received from manufacturers have been without charge. In this way, Lanfax Labs seeks to be totally independent.

Don't ask: If the information isn't available in these pages, then it's because we don't have the resources to collect. But we are happy to analyse products for you - at commercial rates.

Publication of Results
The information and graphs in the following pages of this website are available "free of charge' under the normal limitations of copyright and all copying must acknowledge the source of the information. The use of the data for commercial purposes is not permitted. Under no circumstances is the material to be distributed with any proprietary item of "wastewater", "greywater" or "water recycling" product or equipment. Lanfax Labs has no commercial interest in any laundry product or any wastewater treatment system.

WARNING: The use of the term "Environmentally Friendly" should not be used for laundry detergents or other household cleaning agents, or soaps. Every powder and liquid carries some environmental hazard. What we need to be mindful of is which ones are "environmentally responsible" - that is, their choice provides the lowest environmental hazard to the receiving environment. In some way we are all "responsible" for our environment, so "choose to use" those with the least hazard.

Loss of percolation
Percolation is the movement of water through a soil. Infiltration is the movement of water into the soil, such as infiltration during rain. The water that enters the soil then continues a movement either sideways or downwards under the forces of gravity or in any direction by capillary forces, including upwards in response to evaporation at the soil surface. When laundry water is placed on soils, the impact of the chemistry of the water may be serious. In the photograph below, five soils were each subjected to rain water (clean water) and laundry water (mixed at wash cycle dose). Notice the variability in the throughflow - the water captured in the jar under the soil. In four out of five cases, less laundry water percolated through the soil for the clean water. Secondly the colour of the laundry water percolate showed that the organics from the soil were pushed out to give the soil a darker colour. This colour indicates that the organics (plant nutrients) can be made soluble and therefore leached from the soil. Of course, laundry detergents are manufactured so that they do remove soil from our clothes.

Disclaimer: In no way does this research recommend or endorse ANY product, rather it ranks the products for each of the analyses performed. Conclusions may be drawn from the ranked data as explained with each graph, however, the potential impact of the laundry products on the environment depends on many complex inter-relationships such as:
concentration at which the products are used in the wash cycle; the method of disposal of the wastewater; the receiving environment (land, river or ocean disposal);
the soil loading rates and frequency of discharge; and the vegetation growing on the discharge area.

©Copyright: Lanfax Laboratories PO Box 4690 Armidale NSW 2350.
Contact: Dr Robert Patterson +61 2 67751157 email: lanfaxlabs@bigpond.com.au