DIY Laundry Detergent

Ingredients
Serving =50 loads


·     1 cup Baking Soda
·     ½ cup natural bar soap (grated up)
·     1 cup Borax
·     10-20 drops of essential oils


Pour all ingredients into a bag/bowl and mix thoroughly!


Making your own laundry detergent will decrease your individual carbon footprint. An average American family will do 300 loads of laundry every year, with a carbon footprint of 480 pounds per year. This comes from producing, shipping, and using the products. The chemicals within laundry detergents are toxic, such as dioxane, surfactants, bleach, etc. They can cause human health issues, as well as problems in aquatic animals. They can cause water pollution, where the detergent filled water eventually ends up in bigger bodies of water. Detergents in waer bodies can cause eutrophication, which has negative impacts on all living organisms within that water.


These ingredients used in this DIY detergent don’t have nearly as many negative impacts on the environment. The EPA claims that baking soda is “generally recognized as safe”. Borax is a naturally occurring mineral, but could be fatal if ingested, so don’t try eating this product and keep it out of the reach of small children.  Overall, it is a sustainable product because you aren’t using toxic ingredients, you are decreasing your family’s carbon footprint, and you can make enough for the whole year with one box of each ingredient! This is also a cheaper alternative and takes very little time! Plus, fewer trip to the store when you run out!

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