A hard look at Earth Breeze laundry sheets
One of the biproducts of sharing and discussing environmental topics is that, inevitably, advertising catches up with me. Earth Breeze has been heavily promoted to me on social media, and since they had quite a few selling points for environmentally conscious people. Here’s a brief breakdown on what sold me on this product:
- Comes in paper packaging
- Donates laundry sheets to those in need
- Carbon neutral
- Reduces environmental impact through lighter shipping weights
They’re also relatively transparent on their page, with a list of ingredients displayed as well as an explanation as to what each one is. If you care about the environment deeply, those ingredients matter to you a lot.
One of the ingredients that raised my eyebrow was Polyvinyl Alcohol. Most green laundry sheets go out of their way to describe it in sciency terms that cover up what it is. You’ll see things like, “a harmless polymer/monomer/whatever.
It’s plastic. It’s a particular kind of plastic that readily and completely dissolves in water. Every single laundry pod or sheet out there uses this plastic to help make it into a sheet or pod. There is not one that is guilt free in this regard.
Is Earth Breeze environmentally friendly?
I spoke with Earth Breeze directly about my concerns and was pleased by their response. They were very open about discussing this ingredient, and also talking about the direction of the company as a whole, and the research currently available on Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA.)
Right now there’s some mixed research available on PVA and whether it’s an environmental concern at all. One can view the dissolving properties of PVA as completely harmless, or a disastrous release of microplastics.
In specific situations, PVA is consumed by bacteria and completely biodegrades. Sorting out whether PVA in laundry sheets like Earth Breeze biodegrades is a bit difficult because there are different grades of PVA. The grade of PVA used in laundry sheets is biodegradable.
A separate study in Arizona however, notes that very specific conditions are needed to biodegrade PVA. These conditions aren’t typically met in common wastewater treatment facilities. Much of that PVA is being released into the environment.
With that in mind, the next question remains is it harmful to the environment, and if so is Earth Breeze a bad choice compared to jugs with much more plastic and much more fossil fuel use?
Right now, more research needs to be done on PVA as a pollutant. At this point we know very little about PVA when it is released into the environment, especially in situations where bacteria levels are low and waters are cooler.
We know that PVA can sequester heavy metals, leach into groundwater, and alter gas exchanges. What we don’t know is how much PVA isn’t biodegrading, and how harmful it is compared to traditional sources.
A look at traditional laundry soap
Traditional laundry soap comes in a huge plastic container, which is seldom recycled. Plastics can never be closed loop recycled, so no matter what the jug will end up in landfill eventually. When it gets there it will eventually break down into microplastics, and there will be a lot more of it then what is in those laundry sheets.
Those giant jugs can also soak up heavy metals, alter gas exchanges, and cause ecological mayhem. The laundry soap itself is usually made out of petroleum products (re: fossil fuels) and on top of this, requires huge amounts of fossil fuels to ship…water.
While laundry sheets may have their environmental concerns, they don’t come close to the environmental concerns of liquid laundry soap. In fact, normal laundry detergents are so bad for the environment in so many different ways it’s shocking. Phosphates in detergents can leady to algal blooms, poisons wildlife, and has a ton more plastic involved.
What Earth Breeze is doing offset microplastics
Right now, there are no good alternatives to PVA. Earth Breeze is constantly researching new alternatives, but until they become available they make sure their company makes the world a better place through different avenues.
As of right now, Earth Breeze removes more plastic from the environment than they put in, supports beach clean efforts, plants trees to offset any carbon their company creates, and of course prevents tons of plastic through their plastic free packaging.
From what we can tell, Earth Breeze genuinely cares about the environment, and is making an effort to create a product that is truly beneficial to the environment.
But not everyone uses liquid detergent in plastic jugs!
I have always used powdered soap that comes in a cardboard box. Yes, it has a thin film bag also likely because folks can’t handle a tiny bit of dust leaking out as used to happen all the time when I was a kid and mom used Dreft in boxes. (No bag, slight dust.) And I do properly recycle the plastic film in places where I have found they give to Trex to make that composite decking material people love (not me, I have wood.)
It would help if you would also compare the PVA in sheets with powdered natural soaps like the Biokleen I buy. Thanks!
What a good idea! I’d love to do a comparison between the two. It looks like Biokleen is a very nice detergent just glancing at it. I’ll be happy to do a comparison of the two and let you know when it’s finished.
Seventh Generation’s eco friendly detergent does not come in a plastic bag – just plain cardboard. Also, plastic film is NOT recyclable – it’s DOWNcycled in a very toxic process including those Trex decks which, in a fire, creates massive toxic pollution (think the LA fires this January). VIP for folks to remember that there is no such thing as plastics recycling. ..and downcycling is even worse. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/24/recycled-plastic-more-toxic-no-fix-pollution-greenpeace-warns
Hence why the first of the 5 R’s is “reduce”.
Also, the author appears to be not giving a truly “hard” look at Earth Breeze, as they literally acknowledge that this fossil-fuel based ingredient (whether they want to call it microplastics is moot, it’s fossil-fuel based and therefore total greenwashing), and simply takes the marketing employee’s word for it who is not exactly an objective source.
Does earth breeze sheets work after they appear to be dried-out?
I don’t know at this time. Let me find out for you and I will let you know as soon as I do.
Hi there, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I did not know, so I had to contact the company to ask. They said it is just fine to use the sheets even if they are dried out. 🙂
I just find this all to be quite comical, Earth Breeze acts like they are the first and only dry laundry detergent, I’m waiting for them to make a dishwashing detergent and make the same claims.
Although not as popular as liquids there was a time when powdered soap was all there was. The invention of powdered soap was made so long ago that most people now had no idea that there was a time when every brand from Tide to Woolite came in a box with a plastic scoop. Now you’ll find only 2 or 3 boxed powders in stores and all they need to do Oif they were smart) is to stop trying to fluff up the powder (to make it look like you get more) and leave it in the basic form then cut it in thin layers of small cubes. Better yet just pack it I go a pod and be done with this entire fad.
It’s too bad that people use ecologically based reasons to promote their products when they are t even close to the 1dt to make that product, but act like they are revolutionizing r everything.
It like it has been said everything new is just a rebranded old ide that skips generation . My favorite is 3D movies each time they bring it back they make it seem like it’s brand new when the truth is they were making them in the 1930s then the 50s , the 70s , 90s 2010 and soon to be reintroduced in the 2030s. All just fads that were never that great in the 1st place that’s why they fade away and are forgotten so quickly.
People are easily fooled and if you find the correct marketing strategy you can make big $ selling subpar stuff. That’s another thing that’s been proven over and over the bad thing is it has never gone away.
People that find a connection with marketing gimmicks are willing to accept less performance than other similar products for many reasons it’s all about timing we live in a world where we are being told we’re destroying it. Ordinary people account for only the slightest fraction of causes and if they knew what big companies do in comparison theyef realize their efforts are basically only affecting their conscious and that’s fine. Thinking every little bit helps is being naive I’m the big picture. I wouldn’t doubt that most recyclable items are never ending up there even if you get paid money for it that’s just a way to make you think that your doing something and there’s companies that pay for that just to send it to a dump because it’s cheaper than trying to recycle it. That way they are only losing half the money and don’t need to buy equipment and struggle through a difficult and expensive process that ends up with only 20% of the original products becoming a reusable recycled material. It’s the same for paper plastic and aluminum, we don’t bother with glass now, but glass used to be reused directly by washing it sanitizing and refiling. Beer bottles soda bottles all had a deposit paid and u you better believe they were turned back in at the next purchase. You only paid for the initial deposit and turned back in on the next one, basically you had a few dollars that was floating in limbo until they stopped doing it.
If they returned to that way of bottling you’d ded a significant reduction in waste, litter and consumable products would be minimized for beverages.
Amen. Coming from Oregon with the bottle bill my whole life and now living in a state without one, the litter here is tremendous not to mention all the plastics everywhere. EarthBreeze is definite greenwashing, doing that ‘methinks thou protest too much’ by trying to claim that their fossil fuel-based product is just fine to go into our water. We buy Seventh Generation in the cardboard box when we can’t refill our detergents in the bulk aisle at our local co-ops.
What about Blueland laundry Tablets?