From Ecopedia

Overview

A soap bar is a surfactant, which is used in combination with water for cleaning and washing purposes. Soap bars are commonly available in either solid form or in viscous liquid form. ^[1] They are primarily made up of potassium or sodium salts of organic fatty acids and are usually obtained through saponification process, which involves a chemical reaction between commonly found fats or oils and strong alkaline solutions such as lye or caustic soda (Sodium hydroxide).

Typically, animal fats or vegetable oils such as palm oil are hydrolyzed by the alkaline solutions yielding crude soap (alkali or basic salts of fatty acids) and glycerol.

Environmental Issues

Compared to traditional soap making, commercial soap manufacturing is posing greater dangers to the environment.

Manufacturing

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Soap manufacturing involves traditionally followed hot process or the currently popular cold process, involving reaction between fats like olive oil with lye.

Some of the most commonly used vegetable oils in soaps are:

• palm oil
• jojoba oil
• shea butter
• olive oil
• hemp oil
• Coconut oil

In recent times, several environmentally-harmful synthetic surfactants are being increasingly utilized in soap making to impart additional fragrances, enhanced glow, proteins and vitamins or disinfectant properties of soaps.

Commercial soap manufacturing uses a lot of chemicals, petroleum, fillers, detergents and high animal fat to enhance the soap’s appearance as well as performance. As a result, most of the commercially-made soaps tend to be less eco-friendly compared to historically-made soaps.

In a report released by the National Academy of Sciences, 95% of fragrance-giving chemicals used in soap-making are synthetic, petroleum-based toxic compounds, causing potential harm to both health and environment.^[2]

Moreover, most of the chemicals used for soap making are not biodegradable, thus, contributing significantly to the already increasing global contamination.

Another environmental disadvantage is that commercial soap making involves animal testing, which implies a grave threat to animal sustenance and disruption to the ecological balance as well.

Triclosan

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Triclosan is a most-commonly used anti-bacterial chemical, which is labeled as an environmentally-harmful pesticide by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA against the commercial use of Triclosan as the chemical is found to potentially destroy the delicately-balanced marine ecosystems.^[3]

Presently in the US, 30% of commercially available bar soaps are antibacterial soaps with Triclosan as a major ingredient.

Danger to the environment through excessive use of Triclosan-containing bar soaps is thus imminent.^[4]

Eco-friendly Hand-Made Soaps

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Environmentalists across the globe today are increasingly promoting the use of natural and eco-friendly hand-made bar soaps as such soaps contain only natural oils like coconut and olive and higher amounts of glycerin but no harmful environmental contaminants such as phosphates and detergents.

Most handmade bar soaps use only vegetable oils instead of animal fat. Moreover, most natural handmade soaps are against animal testing, thus posing no harm to animal life or the ecological balance of the planet.

References

1. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap
2. ↑ www.care2.com
3. ↑ www.greenlivingtips.com
4. ↑ www.care2.com