The effect of compact formulations on the environmental profile of Northern European granular laundry detergents - Part I: Environmental Risk Assessment

Regular (1988) and compact granular (1992, 1998) laundry detergents were co mpared on the basis of two distinct, complementary approaches: Environmenta l Risk Assessment and Life-Cycle Assessment. The results are presented in t his paper and an accompanying paper in this volume (Part II: Life-Cycle Ass essment). Exposure data from The Netherlands and Sweden were used for this retrospective analysis. The time period studied (1988-1998) spans many inno vations in laundry detergents, one of which was the introduction of compact detergents. The aquatic risk assessment resulted in risk quotients below I for all detergent ingredients in both countries over the period studied. F urthermore, it showed that risk quotients decrease two to fivefold between 1988 and 1998 in each country due to the introduction of compact detergents . Slightly lower risk quotients were observed in Sweden, when compared to T he Netherlands, attributable to the lower water hardness resulting in lower detergent usage per wash cycle in that country. If water hardnesses were e qual, the outcome of the product risk assessments would also be the same in the two countries.