Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs – often called alkyphenols or alkylphenyls) are surfactants which have an emulsifying and dispersing action, so they have good wetting, penetration, emulsification, dispertion, solubilizing and washing characteristics. This makes them suitable for a very large variety of applications: they’ve been used for over 50 years in a wide variety of products. In …
I went to the stores this week, looking for presents (as it’s the season), and was bombarded with slogan after slogan of companies trying to make their product stand out from the crowd. It made me think about the journey I’ve personally taken since founding O Ecotextiles – going from somebody who was totally clueless, to …
In 2011 Greenpeace published two reports: one investigating the discharge of hazardous substances from textiles manufacturing in China linked to major clothing and sportswear companies (Dirty Laundry), and another detailing the presence of NPEs in clothing and footwear of 15 leading brands (Dirty Laundry 2: Hung Out to Dry). With the publication of these reports Greenpeace …
Last week we explored the arguments being used against sustainable agricultural practices being able to feel the world – and that only more of the “green revolution” concepts will do. The biggest players in the food industry—from pesticide pushers to fertilizer makers to food processors and manufacturers—spend billions of dollars every year not selling food, but …
Did you know that July 11, 1987 was the very first “World Population Day”? [1] World Population Day was designed “to track world population and bring light to population growth trends and issues related to it”. That year, the world’s population was 5 billion – a result of about 200,000 years of population growth – …
A current theme in the blogosphere is that organic sofas are expensive, so let’s see what that could mean. We often hear that organic stuff costs more than conventional stuff, and that only the rich can take advantage of the benefits of organic products. That is true of food prices – organic food typically costs …
Each week for the next few weeks we’ll look at the components of sofas, and discuss what makes a particular component “green” or “safe”. We hope this will help you to better understand the claims of sofa manufacturers, and enable you to decide whether you want to support their products with your dollars. We hope you don’t need …
I just read the article by Lynne Peeples in Huffington Post Green, entitled “Chemistry Lessons: Living with Rachel Carson’s Legacy” which caught my eye because I’ve been reading about Merchants of Doubt, the new book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, in which they conclude that the far right in America, in its quest to …
I love lists – you know, all those “best of” lists – movies, books, toxic chemicals. Having a list makes it easy for us to tick off those bad chemicals that nobody wants to live with. And in the building industry there have been a proliferation of lists which identify chemicals of concern: the Perkins & …
With the increased interest in avoidance of certain chemicals and industrial products that are particularly harmful to our environment, it’s not surprising that manufacturers are becoming ingenious in pointing out attributes that play to this script. So we now see claims for “chrome free” leather, or for “eco friendly” leather. In last week’s post, I …
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