The effect of compact formulations on the environmental profile of northern european granular laundry detergents

Regular (1988) and compact granular (1992, 1998) laundry detergents were compared on the basis of two distinct, complementary approaches: Environmental Risk Assessment and Life-Cycle Assessment. The results are presented in this paper and an accompanying paper in this volume (Part II: Life-Cycle Assessment). Exposure data from The Netherlands and Sweden were used for this retrospective analysis. The time period studied (1988–1998) spans many innovations in laundry detergents, one of which was the introduction of compact detergents. The aquatic risk assessment resulted in risk quotients below 1 for all detergent ingredients in both countries over the period studied. Furthermore, it showed that risk quotients decrease two to five-fold between 1988 and 1998 in each country due to the introduction of compact detergents. Slightly lower risk quotients were observed in Sweden, when compared to The Netherlands, attributable to the lower water hardness resulting in lower detergent usage per wash cycle in that country. If water hardnesses were equal, the outcome of the product risk assessments would also be the same in the two countries.