Soaps and detergents and the environment

Abstract

For more than a quarter of a century there has been a constantly growing awareness of, and interest in, the effects of the detergent industry, by the nature and use of its products on the environment. This interest has largely been in terms of the aquatic environment, but also, as with other industries, in terms of other socioecological issues. This paper concentrates on a review of detergents and their components, both organic and inorganic, and their impact on the aquatic environment in different parts of the world. It deals in particular with sodium tripolyphosphate, a major inorganic component in detergents, and presents an up-to-date and critical review of technical, environmental, sociological and legislative aspects of this product on a worldwide basis and a comparison of it with some of its proposed partial substitutes.