Is phosphate free the same as petrochemical free?

Question

I notice that some laundry soaps promote the fact they are petrochemical free and other promote that they are phosphate free, made with natural ingredients. Are they the same thing?

Answer 1

Phosphates were taken out of most laundry detergents years ago because many states and local goverments banned sale of detergents with phosphates in them.

It does get your clothes cleaner, but it makes treating sewage harder. In rural areas with septic tanks, phosphates from washing clothes contaminates ground water, causing weeds to grow in lakes and streams.

I don't know any true "all natural" detergents that actually work, except ammonia, and soap made the old way (rendered animal fat and potassium hydroxide [lye].

Answer 2

no, phosphate free is not petrochemical free...

Answer 3

Phosphates are a plant food which, when it accumulates in fresh water sources will promote the growth of plant matter which when it dies will use up all the available oxygen from the water, and so kill all animal life.

Phosphate reduction has had the effect of preventing this rapid growth of plant life in the great lakes and many rivers, making it possible for fish to return to those waters.

Phosphate is also urgently needed to grow our food crops. If we do not have it we can not produce as much food, so it is bad economy to waste it by sending it down stream in urban waste water.

Phosphates are often available in adequate quantities in the soil but are made unavailable by high pH soils. So we can make better use of phosphates by lowering our soil pH.

Removing petrochemicals from our waste water is done to reduce petrochemicals going into irrigation and even drinking water downstream, removing it from contaminating our food supply.

Petrochemicals are a very wide range of chemicals that we can not quickly say all the bad things they may do, whereas phosphates are urgently needed to support life processes and every cell of your body. Phosphate causes a problem by promoting life too much.

Answer 4

Phosphate comes from the element phosphorous.  Petrochemicals come from petroleum (crude oil).  They are not the same.