Marcel’s Green Soap introduces palm oil-free laundry detergent
After several months of intensive testing and development, the time has come: Marcel introduces us with his palm oil-free liquid laundry detergent! And we are quite proud of that. Curious why our detergent is now palm oil-free? You can read all about it in this article.
Feel Good Cleaning
Marcel’s Green Soap is always transparent about what we stand for as a brand, which ingredients we use and where our products are produced. His vision was, and still is, to change the world of soap. Marcel’s sink cabinet was full of harsh, chemical cleaning products that don’t exactly make the world any cleaner. He decided this needed to be changed: a clean house and a healthy planet. He threw himself into developing eco-friendly soap. That was the beginning of a line of vegan and almost completely biodegradable products for your whole home. Eco-friendly soaps in bottles of 100% recycled plastic, good for you and for the planet. We call it Feel Good Cleaning. But we began to feel less and less good about the use of palm oil in our products.
We are all familiar with the images of rainforests being cut down to make way for palm oil plantations. A travesty, we think. The rainforest is responsible for more than 80% of our earth’s biodiversity. Rainforests, such as those in the Amazon region, also have an important function when it comes to absorbing CO2. The vegetation on our planet, of which the Amazon is an important part, absorbs a quarter of all CO2 that we emit. An enormous amount of CO2 is also stored in the forests, including in trees and charcoal. If that is released, it will have a major impact. That is why it is so important that we protect the rainforests that still exist.
That got Marcel to thinking. If this continues, the earth will warm even further. Will the earth still be habitable for his 3 daughters in a few years? Surely there must be another way to handle ingredients such as palm oil?
Breaking the growth of new palm oil plantations
The world population is growing and the demand for palm oil will only increase. The only solution to curb the growth of new palm oil plantations is to use less palm oil. That’s why Marcel decided to make his laundry detergent, the product we all use (almost) every day, palm oil-free. With this product we can make the most impact together. In addition, laundry detergent is also the product where you notice it the least if the palm oil is removed. How about that? We would like to explain that to you. Coming up: the surfactants (the foaming and dirt-dissolving agents) contained in some of our products are made from palm oil. Palm oil is a wonderful product and works very well, you don’t need much of it and it is a fairly cheap ingredient. That is also the reason why the world loves palm oil so much:
After a lot of testing and trialling, this was successful with our detergent. With laundry detergent you have the advantage that, in addition to surfactants, it also contains enzymes that are dirt-dissolving (they take over part of the work of the surfactants). Also, you don’t touch detergent with your hands, so you don’t feel the difference. This does not apply to all other products such as shampoo, so to get an equivalent product there without palm oil is much more difficult. Replacing palm oil in all products is not the solution.
“We believe that it is important as a brand to do our part and focus on slowing down the growth of new palm oil plantations. Together we can ensure that rainforest no longer has to make way for new palm oil plantations. There are enough palm oil plantations on our planet, we don’t need any more. “
Why 100% rejecting palm oil is not the solution
In our view, completely rejecting all palm oil is not the answer. No other vegetable oil scores better on these environmental aspects than palm oil. Palm oil has a very high yield per hectare (4-10 times higher than other vegetable oils), and few pesticides and fertilizers are needed for cultivation. There is also little need to irrigate with palm oil. In many products coconut oil or a mix of soybean oil, rapeseed oil and sunflower oil could replace palm oil. But coconut oil and soybean oil are also tropical products. They have a lower yield per hectare than palm oil, which means that the risk of deforestation (and thus loss of biodiversity and additional emissions of greenhouse gases from land conversion) is even greater than with palm oil. 100% replacement of palm oil with coconut oil or soy oil is therefore not more environmentally friendly.
But what does?
We believe that it is important as a brand to do our part and focus on slowing down the growth of new palm oil plantations. Together we can ensure that rainforest no longer has to make way for new palm oil plantations. There are enough palm oil plantations on our planet, we don’t need any more. Let’s explore different routes together, and find new ways to deal with palm oil as well being aware of it. For example, choose products without palm oil where this is easy, and choose sustainable palm oil when it comes to products where palm oil is difficult to replace.
What is sustainable palm oil?
Our suppliers of palm and coconut oil ingredients are all Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified sustainable palm oil suppliers. The RSPO is an international organisation where companies and environmental organisations (including WWF and Oxfam) make efforts to make palm oil cultivation worldwide more sustainable. Palm oil with the RSPO quality mark has to meet a lot of requirements. For example, the cultivation of sustainable palm oil must not have been at the expense of natural forests and the habitat of endangered species. No plantations may be set up on peat soil. There are also requirements for the use of pesticides, wastewater management, energy and greenhouse gases. The label also has criteria for respecting the rights of employees and local residents.
We can make a difference by being more aware of palm oil together. Will you join us?
Try our palm oil-free detergent now and wash really clean.
Sources: Milieu Centraal, World Animal Protection, WWF, RSPO, NOS
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