Detergents are tough on stains - is well known but what is less known is that they are equally tough on the planet. Detergents don’t completely degrade; they contaminate our water supplies, rivers and oceans with toxic heavy metals like cadmium and arsenic. Studies have shown that phosphates, a common ingredient in detergents, builds up in waterways. When phosphate reaches the lakes and rivers, through our sewage systems, it violates the natural bio-balance by causing excessive growth of algae. The algae become dominant and take over all the resources in the area, like sun and oxygen, leaving all the other marine life like fishes, bacteria, etc. to die

Just like detergents remove the oil or grease from a dirty shirt – It removes a thin layer from the fish’s skin that is supposed to protect it from bacteria and parasites.

Some of the salts that conventional detergents contain affect soil structure. making it less fertile in some cases, and in other cases killing the healthy bacteria that naturally grows in the soil and helps to keep its structure.

The emissions coming out of the machine before and after washing contain substances that are bad to breathe and consequently are bad for your family’s health.

Synthetic clothes, like nylon, polyester and rayon, all essentially plastic derivatives, release billions of microplastics — teeny bits of plastic smaller than one millimeter — when washed. These microplastics eventually make their way into oceans where they slowly bioaccumulate up the food chain.

TBhagavan Mahavir included Ahimsa as a fundamental principle. All life is sacred, and everything has a right to live fearlessly to its maximum potential.

While we take ample care to avoid direct Hinsa (Ex: by abstaining from underground vegetables) what about the indirect Hinsa (Ex: the Hinsa by using detergents) that happens knowing or unknowingly. Also, another point to be noted is that any kind of Hinsa, direct or indirect, ultimately affects our climate, food cycle in some way or other.

Feel helpless, right? What can be done to save our souls from this Hinsa and our fellow living beings of this immense pain. Investing in eco cleaning products for your home is one of the simplest ways to move to a more sustainable way of living.

Eco-friendly or green cleaning is seeing a huge rise in interest as more of us are challenging the old mainstream brands, brands that relied on single use plastic and man-made chemicals.

Moving back to more traditional methods often using lemon, bicarb of soda and white vinegar in various combinations, using detergents that are derived from natural sources like oil and soybeans over the synthetic type or opting for new brands that focus on plant-based ingredients and plastic free packaging is the only solution.

Restrict yourself to a zero chemical-detergent regime today. You may take up eco-friendly detergents. Let us know about the completion of your task on our email id –forms@appliedjainism.inand be an inspiration for others.