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wellington womble
Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands
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judith
Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire
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wellington womble
Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands
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judith
Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire
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sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales
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 Posted: Fri Nov 04, 05 6:56 am Post subject: |
 
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If you are swapping fats around in a soap recipe, just crunch the numbers using this online calculator and you'll get the lye right. For laundry, you want to avoid too much excess fat (superfatting), so you work with a tiny bit more lye than you would in a bath soap recipe.
https://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
As an example, a soap made with 1kg lard needs 137g lye (I picked a full nember within the 'red' band on their recipe- if it was soap for bathing I'd personally have used only 131g), but if you look at their notes on 'shortening' (veg fat) you'll see that it varies a lot but they use a soyoil based one, so crunching those numbers gives you only 134g lye for the same laundry soap. Its worth finding out what oils are in your preferred veg fat cos a few grams of lye too much can make a really nasty soap.
A lot of soapers use Pura solid veg fat, the sap values for that seem to be quite widely known- I'll try to put my hands on it later.
I also grate all mine for laundry and fill an large jam jar, then I fill a smaller jamajar and add boiling water to make a soft soap paste, i add a couple of drops of essential oil if I feel like having scented laundry, then use a tablespoon of this gloop in the machine. Often i add a sprinkle of washing soda on heavy loads, and if I have any to hand I put a bit of vinegar in teh rinse sid section |
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judith
Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire
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Blue Peter
Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 2400
Location: Milton Keynes
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judith
Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire
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| Posted: Tue Nov 08, 05 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Blue Peter wrote: |
1. Is (homemade) soap environmentally friendly?
2. Would this laundry soap be safe to use on the clothes and nappies of babies and young children?
3. And, I suppose generally, how would homemade soaps "react with" young children? |
1. Yes. AFAIK, the reaction produces only glycerine and soap. There are no other by-products that have to be disposed of or that could potentially harm the environment.
There are the starting materials to be taken into account - you can't get away from the fact that you need lye. I confess I don't know what is the environmental impact of industrial lye production. You could make your own starting from wood ashes and water, but I don't think I would want to use the end result for babies' clothes. The choice of oils/fats also comes into it - but you can choose those to suit your conscience / pocket.
2. IMO yes - see next answer.
3. From my own experience, I had to stop using fabric conditioner as it made me itch. I now find I am also quite sensitive to the perfumes and other ingredients in most detergents. if I walk down the detergent aisle in a supermarket, I find my eyes start to stream and I can't stop sneezing. This doesn't happen with the "green" detergents and I have no sensitivity to the home-made soap, but I find that the soap washes better than Ecover or whatever.
The homemade soap does involve a bit of faff, but I would say the environmental impact is way, way lower than any commercially produced detergent. |
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Blue Peter
Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 2400
Location: Milton Keynes
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2steps
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 5349
Location: Surrey
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sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales
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2steps
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 5349
Location: Surrey
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giraffe
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 272
Location: Nottingham
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