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Laundry must be in the air these days (no pun intended): this being our second post in a week on the topic.
I remember as a kid, I used to imagine all kinds of trees that grew all kinds of cool stuff. Like say, Tonka Trucks (remember those?…the heavy-duty steel ones…my mom found some of mine in their garage last year and brought them over… man, those were some rugged toys). But, one thing I never imagined was something like “soap” that grew on trees. Money? yeah. Candy Bars? yeah. Soap? Nope.
But, as it turns out Soap does grow on trees. Heard of these?
While surfing for clothesline systems, we stumbled on this product, which just seemed too good to be true. Its like the zero emissions version of laundry, only it’s as natural as a nut (in fact, it is a nut). Even harvesting it is harmless.
Thus far, my family’s been using an eco-friendly detergent: it’s the Next to Godliness powder at Trader Joes. According to its packaging, its biodegradable, non-toxic, unscented and made of plant and earth-based ingredients. Yeah, well crude oil is a “plant-based” ingredient too. The box is made from 100% recycled paperboard with a minimum 35% post-consumer content.
But, even with all that earth-friendliness, the product is probably not entirely eco-friendly in its manufacturing. I don’t read anything that says “non-polluting manufacturing” on the box… Not so with the soapnut, unless human sweat is a pollutant.
Classic cradle-to-cradle application.
I’m gonna fork out the $20 bucks and see how they work. Yeah, its expensive but I’m investing in my childhood imagination here. I think if we’re going to start designing, as McDonough says, that takes into account “all children, all species, for all time,” we have to start using some of that childhood imagination.
Jason
3 responses so far ↓
1 Steven // Jul 11, 2007 at 10:49 am
I have a cousin up in Bend who started a recycle business. His slogan was “Relax and do nothing for the environment.” This tongue in cheek reference to eager consumption ties into the different “sustainable” products that we buy. Let me say that again… that we BUY. Bill McKibben hypothesizes that for every dollar we spend in a capitalist economy, a gallon of petroleum based fuel is consumed.
The awesome thing about those nuts, as opposed to TJs nifty soap with “green” packaging, is the inherent “nothingness” in and about its consumption. Trees grow, breathe, filter, and drop nuts so we clean our laundry. Sweet!
My wife and I are on a routine where we try and wear our clothes for multiple days. Im still negotiating the funk factor with social stigmatism, but I’ll keep ya’ll posted on how it goes
2 Jason // Jul 11, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Steven: and even the soapnuts cost some petroleum change for us Westerners since we don’t harvest them ourselves and they have to be transported 1/2 way around the world to the packaging company to the distributor to the buyer and the nuts come in a plastic bag, likely to be petroleum-based.
Wonder if our Sacramento climate would grow these trees? Its a Chinese Soapberry tree.
Regarding funk factor disclosures: i think if I tried that same approach with my toddler using cloth diapers I’d find myself in some serious social stigmatism.
3 dan // Jul 13, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Okay first of all, the TED Cradle to Cradle video is great. There are tons of TED vids on YouTube, and that got me watching a bunch…
Also, I’m not ashamed to admit that I re-wear most of my clothes many times before washing. If your not crapping your pants all the time (read: cloth diapers), it really is okay to not wash so much.
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