Dishwashing tabs: water-soluble film – researchers make the announcement

Who dirty Dishes doesn’t want to scrub by hand and has the space for it, they probably have a dishwasher at home. In Germany, around 75 percent of private households owned the device in 2022, according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office. Consequently heard for many people Dishwashing liquid on the shoppinglist.

Now there are more and more dishwashing tabs on the market, which are covered with a water-soluble film. The promise of many manufacturers: The tabs can be put in the dishwasher together with the packaging, since the plastic is biodegradable and dissolves. With conventional products, the tabs are in one plastic wrapthat you have to take off and throw away beforehand. This is how you produce unnecessary plastic waste per tab. But is the water-soluble product really the better and more sustainable alternative?

Water-soluble foil: This is the substance it is made of

Even if the film looks and feels like plastic – from a purely chemical point of view it is not. The included plastic is called PVOH – polyvinyl alcohol. According to Stiftung Warentest, PVOH is biodegradable. It is therefore converted into harmless by bacteria and co. in the water carbon dioxide converted.

PVOH is also used in many cosmetic products, adhesives, paper and other everyday materials. The Fabric even ends up in some foods, for example to coat pills. Even with detergent pads for the soluble foil PVOH used.

Dishwasher tabs: does the foil disappear completely during the rinse cycle?

If the slide with Water comes into contact, it disintegrates in the dishwasher. But that doesn’t mean that the material is completely “magiced away”. PVOH migrates via the wastewater to the sewage treatment plant. In theory, this is where the biological begins degradation by the bacteria. The NDR reported in 2021 that no residues of the casings could be found in sewage treatment plants to date.

Polyvinyl alcohol is one of the soluble polymers. A study showed that PVOH dissolves well in water Study from 2021, led by a researcher from the “Free University of Brussels”. However, not all chemical PVOH compounds are created equal solvable – that depends on the respective composition. In addition, degradation takes some time: on average, 60 percent of the film only degrades after 28 days.

There is another catch: The data situation is so far sparse. On request, the Federal Environment Agency stated that, due to a lack of data, it was not possible to assume with certainty that all manufacturers used the substance for their water-soluble slides actually use. According to the Federal Environment Agency, only individual manufacturers have information on the water-soluble film.

Dishwashing liquid: You should pay attention to this when buying

That it’s the slides at the Tabs is for the following reason: the dishwashing tabs should be protected from moisture and should not rub against each other during storage and break.

Die most environmentally friendly According to Stiftung Warentest, the alternative is not to use any film at all. There are products where the Tabs are not individually wrapped. Or you can use powder. A distinction is made between mono powders and tabs as well as multitabs. The “multi-products” often contain components that are difficult to degrade – like phosphonates. From the point of view of the Federal Environment Agency, these are problematic: Phosphonates would accumulate in the sediment of the water bodies. Means: If you want to do something good for the environment, you will use products that do not contain the substance. Read here: Dishwasher tabs in the test: These brands have convinced

The Federal Environment Agency recommends: “In order to protect the environment in addition to relieveshould be based on products with a environmental label such as the Blue Angel, because there (…) the use of phosphonates is prohibited and the use of poorly degradable substances is generally limited.” (emi)

More articles from this category can be found here: Life