Replacing old lies with new

[fredroy]

I buy Arm & Hammer. Unscented if they have it because that whole aisle makes me sneeze. No need to bring it home if I can help it.
It's a powder. It's going into a tub of water, why would I pay to have water shipped to me? I store it in a two quart-ish container that had Kraft parmesan cheese from Sam's Club about 25 years ago.

If we have recycling around here, I don't know where. I do crush beer cans and sell for the aluminum. Other cans are filled or flattened. Boxes are flattened. We make a kitchen trash bag of trash every two weeks with a 30 pack beer box of cardboard and paper once a month. Not bad.

 

[Vannie]

Some of you sound drained from the whole ordeal.

 

[fredroy]

^^ Yes. But once we Gain our breath we will All Cheer up when the Tide turns. (grin)

 

[NotHardUp1]

It bears stating that the claim by Earthbreeze that 90% of laundy detergent jugs wind up in landfills is optimistic, in my view. Lots of recycling contractors do not recycle.

And the industry dangles that slim actual recycling in front of consumers and governments as a distraction from the reality that the vast majority of plastics are never recycled and the production is ever-growing.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Does Earthbreeze package their sheets in paper? Or one time use plastics?

I think the sheets are simply free of any dividers inside the cardboard envelope they are packaged in together. There's no reason why dry sheets need any internal separators or packaging.

 

[Alistair]

I wonder how environmentally friendly the production is. Is it like producing a Tesla battery? Contaminating water worse than liquid detergent? Creating some kind of toxic waste byproduct?

 

[Peloso]

It bears stating that the claim by Earthbreeze that 90% of laundy detergent jugs wind up in landfills is optimistic, in my view. Lots of recycling contractors do not recycle.

And the industry dangles that slim actual recycling in front of consumers and governments as a distraction from the reality that the vast majority of plastics are never recycled and the production is ever-growing.

Making new things out of plastic is cost effective. Recycling used plastic is not. I think we all know the outcome$.

 

[me203]

I buy Arm & Hammer. Unscented if they have it because that whole aisle makes me sneeze. No need to bring it home if I can help it.
It's a powder. It's going into a tub of water, why would I pay to have water shipped to me?

I've heard the argument that powder is a better choice. One isn't shipping jugs that are largely water. The powder is as concentrated as one can get. And cardboard boxes are better than plastic. And the stuff lasts if carefully stored. I've heard that liquids have a limited life before they deteriorate to being unusable. I bought a small jug of Tide last week, and that was one thought. Not sure that I'll be happily using that regularly, so will it start turning bad before I use it up? Although it was cheap, and it has promise to be good for the times I need something that will deal with tough stains.

I'd prefer using powder. (I joke it was good enough for my mother's Kenmore, so it's good enough for the POS washer I have to use.) But I end up being a reluctant user of liquids because of market realities. Few powders left--and nothing unscented is available at the stores where I shop. The good sales are for liquids, too.

And I dislike single use detergent packs more than liquids--seems wasteful, and costs $$$$. But I reluctantly keep a small supply, since it's only way of getting a decent unscented detergent in any store where I shop for the last year or so. I can live with scents for many loads if I have to--although unscented is my #1 choice--but for some loads I do want the unscented if at all possible.

 

[me203]

I looked at the price of these laundry sheets, and I almost did something in my pants that would require them to be washed.

 

[fredroy]

One reason I quit using Downy is that it gels into a thick goo. Adding water works until laundry day next month. It did not gel in the past. I'm still getting stuff out of the washer smelling April Fresh after two years. I'm not taking the machine apart to clean out the Downy sludge.

When I was a kid, Mom bought a detergent called Salvo. I think. It was a pill. About an inch thick and a couple inches across. No measuring. She liked it, Mom was all about "saving time" with four brats pestering her.

There's another. Fab? I don't recall exactly after 35 years. The detergent was in a dryer sheet sort of pouch. Toss it into the machine and wa-la! you also have a dryer sheet. Worked great the last time I went to Hawaii.

It sucks that it's been 35 years since I've been to Maui. On the bright side, I still have all of my teeth.

 

[me203]

^The thing I wonder about softener is that it leaves a chemical residue behind,since it's intended to be used in the final rinse. I have wondered how good it is having that residue on clothes that are pressed against ones skin all day long...

The other thing I hate: the $$$.

I did, at one time, try softener out of curiousity to see if it helped make line dried towels softer. As I recall, it helped, but not enough to justify the $$$ or the concerns about chemical residues.

 

[fredroy]

No softener on towels. They don't absorb water as well. The stuff is fine for everything else. Just use half of what the directions say.

 

[me203]

^ I don't recall much trouble with softener on towels--but this was at the time I used "green" detergents (e.g., Seventh Generation) almost exclusively, and I would have used green softeners, which might have behaved differently than conventional softeners. It also probably helped that I washed the towels in warm water, which would probably clean out old softener residue. It seems to me I've heard of people using softeners like Downy with OK results with careful use and dosing.

Currently, though I just dry all the towels in the dryer, and they end up soft enough for me. I think I only air dried one load of bath towels this summer. Back when I did the softener experiments, I air dried towels all the time, year round.

 

[Dargelos]

The cheepo detergents are probably perfectly good enough for cleaning clothes, but they have stinky fragrances which I can't stand. It hardly seems logical that unscented costs more than scented but it does. And softener, who needs that? You only need it if you use too much detergent, so just use less.

 

[me203]

The cheepo detergents are probably perfectly good enough for cleaning clothes

This Tide ad argues against this:

Although when I had a decent washer, I found less powerful detergents seemed to work fine for me.

 

[Kahaih]

This Tide ad argues against this:

Although when I had a decent washer, I found less powerful detergents seemed to work fine for me.

Cute commercial, but let's hope that the bearded guy is the top, 'cause he's full of shit.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The cheepo detergents are probably perfectly good enough for cleaning clothes, but they have stinky fragrances which I can't stand. It hardly seems logical that unscented costs more than scented but it does. And softener, who needs that? You only need it if you use too much detergent, so just use less.

Although when I had a decent washer, I found less powerful detergents seemed to work fine for me.

The truth is, the majority of our clothes, by weight and mass, don't need much more than a light detergent. For most of us indoor workers, it's just a bit of dust and perspiration.

Tide is right about being concentrated, but it's still a liquid, and that's better avoided until and unless they begin packaging it in something very biodegradable. Even then, it's bad because shipping the weight of it consumes more fuel than dry weight.

 

[me203]

My laundry loads are (usually) not that demanding, but I've not had the greatest luck with low power detergents the last few years. Stuff often seems to come clean, but doesn't actually come as clean as it does with something like Tide or Persil. The biggest thing I note: the laundry is not as clean smelling. One plus to unscented detergent (although not a hugely motivating reason for me to buy it) is that's very easy to tell how clean the laundry really smells, since there is no perfume to give cover. I cynically wonder, in fact, if one reason scenting of laundry products is often so strong isn't to give a fake sense of "it smells clean!" regardless of the reality.

Although, this is my experience, and "your mileage may vary" and all that. If I had a better washer, it would make a difference. When I had a good washer to use, I seldom used Tide, feeling it really wasn't worth the $$$. But the washers I've used in recent history haven't been as good, and so detergent quality makes more of a difference for me now than it once did.

Maybe those cheaper detergents would work better if more heavily dosed. But then the cost per load increases, thus reducing one selling point. And that increases the number of plastic jugs being shipped over time.

As I said before, my choice would be powder. I have never really liked liquid detergent. In the 1990s, I think frugally minded people noted that liquid was poor value. My list of reasons to dislike liquid has only grown. But powder detergent choices just keep shrinking. And the sales are on liquids and those single use detergent packs. There was a good sale on Tide liquid last week at one store. The Tide powder (one of the only powder options left) is $$$$ and never goes on sale, let alone a good sale.

 

[rareboy]

The cheepo detergents are probably perfectly good enough for cleaning clothes, but they have stinky fragrances which I can't stand. It hardly seems logical that unscented costs more than scented but it does. And softener, who needs that? You only need it if you use too much detergent, so just use less.

Only unscented for us...and you do actually pay more.

 

[Vannie]

Im a sucker for anything that says Lavender.