Thursday, September 29, 2011

Cleaning and our water supply


Ever see the signs on the street drains that say flows to stream? We see these everyday near my son’s school and the kids always comment about them and the little fish picture on it. We have spoken many times about the meaning of the signs and how we can make sure the fish in the stream are happy and safe.

This gets me thinking about my home drains which will eventually get into the streams as well, although they get a bit of processing first. When water is processed though it is not completely cleaned of everything, in fact a lot of the yucky stuff gets though. The pollutants in the water do not only affect the stream, rivers, lakes, and oceans, but also us. This water pollution guide has some good information. More information on how your actions can affect water can be seen here. This is the basis of the water bottle companies arguments we are polluting our own water so buy their water, which seems absolutely crazy to me. Wouldn’t it be much easier to stop using all the nasty things that are polluting our water?

This article on detergent pollutions is a great start to learn about what is in your laundry and dish detergents. One major concern of dishwashing detergents is phosphates. You can read more about phosphates why they are bad and what is currently being done to ban them from detergents here and here. Many states have started a ban on phosphates but since that is not the only concerning chemical in detergents looking at the label closely is important, unfortunately companies are not required to include ingredients on their label.

Take a moment now and google your favorite laundry detergent and/or dish detergent ingredients. If you can find them look up a few of them and see what you find. There is no reason not to know what you are putting on your clothes and dishes, especially if you think about your kids who tend to suck on their clothes or lick the dishes.

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