Household Bleach: Bad for the Environment?
I’ve avoided bleach for sometime, but there are certain things that it’s just best for, such as whitening a stained white shirt, or cleaning up dirty grout in the bathtub. Was I bad for wanting a bottle of bleach? There’s a lot of massive anti-bleach hype on the Internet, but is it really that bad? I found an article that explains that bleach is not as bad as you might think. (Note: The first paragraph of this article has a typo in it. It should say, “household bleach does NOT pose a significant threat to the environment.”)
Small volume isn’t the only reason scientists are unconcerned about household bleach. Conditions in your laundry room are vastly different from conditions in a paper-bleaching plant, and as a result the household bleach behaves differently. “I am not aware of chlorine in washing machines causing significant hazards,” says Vern Snoeyink, Ph.D., a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “We’re not aware of any significant problems with the bleach used in laundry, even at some of the bigger facilities,” says the IJC’s Bevaquah. “It’s just not a problem.”
Why isn’t it a problem? Scientists say that at least two major conditions are necessary to produce a long-chain organochlorine like dioxin, and they aren’t present in a household situation. To produce dioxin, the chlorine must have a low pH, and it must have a precursor (a set of carboncontaining molecules) to react with. The pH of household bleach is too high, says de Fur, and there are few, if any precursors available in the average load of dirty socks. In contrast, a paper-bleaching plant is packed with carbon-containing substances, and has a low pH. “I suppose you could throw a bunch of sawdust in the laundry,” speculates McCabe, “but even then you still couldn’t make dioxin.”
Now, this article is from 1995, but basic science does not change in 10 years. Household bleach breaks down to salt and water after being thrown down the drain. It is not the same thing as the bleach used to bleach toilet paper.
The problem with household bleach is that making it can be harmful to the environment, but that can go for just about any product you buy these days. And of course, breathing in the fumes for a long period time isn’t good for you. But rather than being overly concerned with an occasional use of bleach, you are better off buying products that don’t use commercial bleaching, because that’s what really hurts the environment and pollutes. Buying recycled toilet paper that does not use chlorine bleach would be a good place to start.
I enjoyed reading your article. My “enviro” friends have always looked down on me for cleaning with bleach. It’s amusing to see evidence here and online debunking myths like cleaning with bleach being harmful for the environment.
I water it down quite a bit of course before I clean. I use a spray bottle filled with about 10 parts water to one part bleach. When I clean, I don’t mix with any other cleaners. I like cleaning with bleach because its really cheap, it kills germs and it makes everything smell fresh and clean.
Thanks for your comment and the tips, EB!