Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Alamos, Pereira, Colombia.
Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Mariana, Pasto, Colombia.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Mar;30(12):34243-34254. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-24439-x. Epub 2022 Dec 12.
The increasing consumption of cleaning products deteriorates water resources due to harmful components such as phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) compounds, oils, bleach, and acids, typical compounds in traditional detergents. The use of biodegradable detergents as an environmentally friendly alternative has been proposed in different regions. In Colombia, resolution 1770/2018 sets a minimum biodegradability rate of 60% for the surfactants present in liquid detergents, which would reduce to a similar extent the impacts on water after their use. However, the environmental impacts of the supply chain of these detergents and their raw materials have not been evaluated so far. This study presents an environmental life cycle assessment of petroleum-based liquid detergents and a comparison to traditional solid detergents, based on the ISO 14040 standard and the ReCiPe-2016 impacts assessment method. A novel bio-detergent containing anionic plant-based surfactants was proposed in this analysis. The impacts of packaging and the distribution of the product to consumers were also considered. Raw materials contributed to 91% of the total of 314 g of CO eq generated per liter of liquid detergent, where the production of fatty alcohol sulfate and PET packaging shared 78.8% and 12.2% of the total impact, respectively. It was also determined that 5.4 L of water are consumed and 0.09 g of P eq and 0.1 g of N eq are emitted per liter of detergent. This liquid detergent presented better environmental performance than traditional detergents in all the impact categories, except for the fossil resource scarcity category. The evaluated detergent would significantly mitigate the generation of negative effects on ecosystems. Moreover, the substitution of PET for HDPE packaging could reduce the impacts on freshwater eutrophication by 10%, although the carbon footprint can slightly increase, which could be compensated due to its higher recyclability rate. In contrast, the proposed bio-detergent would not have significant benefits and would negatively affect water consumption and land use in its supply chain.
清洁剂的大量使用会导致水中磷（P）和氮（N）化合物、油、漂白剂和酸等有害物质以及典型的传统清洁剂成分的增加，从而破坏水资源。因此，不同地区都提出使用可生物降解的清洁剂作为环保替代品。在哥伦比亚，第 1770/2018 号决议规定，液体清洁剂中表面活性剂的最低生物降解率为 60%，这将大大减少其使用后对水的影响。然而，迄今为止，还没有评估这些清洁剂及其原材料供应链对环境的影响。本研究根据 ISO 14040 标准和 ReCiPe-2016 影响评估方法，对石油基液体清洁剂和传统固体清洁剂进行了环境生命周期评估，并进行了比较。在这项分析中，提出了一种新型的生物清洁剂，其中含有阴离子植物表面活性剂。还考虑了包装和产品向消费者分配的影响。原材料占每升液体清洁剂产生的 314 克 CO eq 总量的 91%，其中脂肪酸硫酸盐和 PET 包装的生产分别占总影响的 78.8%和 12.2%。此外，还确定每升清洁剂消耗 5.4 升水，排放 0.09 克 P eq 和 0.1 克 N eq。与传统清洁剂相比，这种液体清洁剂在所有影响类别中都具有更好的环境性能，除了化石资源稀缺类别。评估后的清洁剂将大大减轻对生态系统的负面影响。此外，用 HDPE 包装替代 PET 包装可以将淡水富营养化的影响减少 10%，尽管碳足迹可能会略有增加，但由于其更高的回收利用率，这一增加可以得到补偿。相比之下，所提出的生物清洁剂不会带来显著的好处，反而会对其供应链中的水消耗和土地利用产生负面影响。
