GUPPYFRIEND Laundry Detergent

The GUPPYFRIEND Washing Bag has reduced microplastic pollution in countless households. While your textiles are protected, microplastic fibers are stopped while washing within the GUPPYFRIEND Washing Bag, unknowingly, plastic often enters the environment from your detergent. Just like the plastic fibers from our clothes, the microplastics from detergents pollute the environment and endanger our health. Both are important to keep microplastics from your wastewater: the GUPPYFRIEND Washing Bag and a suitable detergent. The GUPPYFRIEND Laundry Detergent doesn't contain solid microplastics or liquid plastics. Instead of relying on environmentally and climate-damaging palm oil as a main washing ingredient - as is usually the case - the GUPPYFRIEND detergent cleans with natural soap based on locally grown and GMO-free rapeseed oil.

The GUPPYFRIEND Laundry Detergent comes without solid microplastics or liquid plastics. Instead of relying on environmentally and climate-damaging palm oil as an active washing ingredient, the GUPPYFRIEND Laundry Detergent cleans with natural soap based on locally grown and GMO-free rapeseed oil. Our detergent is potent without microplastics, palm oil, dyes, or bleach, and the washing performance is equal to those detergents containing harsh chemicals which break down in the environment.

Our GUPPYFRIEND Laundry Detergent is suitable for coloured and light garments. However, to reduce microplastic pollution from fibres breaking off in the machine, it's a good idea - in addition to using the GUPPYFRIEND Washing Bag - to separate Laundry not only by colour but also by surface texture (for more information, see our Better Washing Guide). Please note: Our detergent is not suitable for silk and wool. When washing, add the detergent directly into the filling chamber according to the dosage instructions and follow the guidelines of the washing machine and the instructions on the garment's care label. To use water, energy, and detergent efficiently, it is best to keep the machine full.

The GUPPYFRIEND Laundry Detergent can be used at 20°C to 90°C. However, the wash-active substances work best between 30°C and 60°C degrees. For hygienic reasons, you should occasionally launder at higher temperatures. But very important: the higher the temperatures, the more the fibres are stressed. This is called hydrolysis, and this means the fibres are likelier to break off and cause microplastic pollution.

Microplastics are solid plastic particles smaller than 5 mm. In detergents, microplastics are used, for example, to prevent discoloration, to repel dirt, as foam regulators, water softeners, and thickeners, and to coat textiles or dyes. Dissolved, gel-like and liquid polymers are excluded from the typical definitions of microplastics. These are now increasingly replacing solid microplastics in detergents. If the label says "microplastic-free," this doesn't automatically mean there's no plastic used in the detergent. This is because soluble polymers are also carried into the wastewater and are not entirely retained by sewage algae. In detergents, they occur as polycarboxylates, polyacrylates, polyvinylpyrrolidones, or polyethylene glycol. The effects of dissolved polymers on nature must be further researched. What is certain is that products containing polymers that are difficult to degrade pose a high environmental and health risk. Plastic has no place in nature!

The GUPPYFRIEND Laundry Detergent is microplastic-free and contains no gel, liquid, or dissolved plastics. 

Palm oil is cheap, durable, odorless, available in large quantities, and consistent in quality. There are many reasons why palm oil is used in many detergents - organic detergents included. Palm oil comes from tropical regions and has a long journey before it becomes a detergent. Slash-and-burn and deforestation of rainforests destroy the habitat of endangered species, and more CO2 is released. For certified palm oil cultivation, which is supposedly more sustainable, forests are cut down, moors are drained, and CO2 is released into the atmosphere during transport. Unfortunately, due to this forests and moors are eliminated as necessary carbon capture and storage reservoirs.

Detergent in powder and powder-like forms have a lower transport volume than liquid detergent. However, for powders to be an advantage, they must be in high concentrations and not contain fillers, additives, or anti-caking agents. But this is rarely the case. Energy-intensive drying processes are necessary for powder detergent, which cancels out CO2 savings in transport. In addition, abrasives are often used in powder detergent, and these abrasives contribute to microplastic pollution from your synthetic clothes. Powders and other alternatives to Laundry Detergents also have a selective effect on clothes because they don't completely dissolve in water. In our tests, considerable amounts of undissolved powder accumulated at the vent.