If you use liquid soap instead of solid hand soap, you usually generate more packaging waste. But according to “Öko-Test” there are more and less sustainable variants.
Frankfurt/Main – You clean your hands, but are they also environmentally friendly? The magazine “Öko-Test” (Issue 1/2023) examined a total of 48 liquid soaps.
The problem: Unlike solid soaps, they are usually packaged in plastic. But at least around a third of the liquid soaps tested were filled in bottles made from demonstrably more than 30 percent recycled plastic. Including the cheapest product in the test and almost half of the natural cosmetics products.
The latter also scored “very good” for the ingredients. All twelve in the test received this grade. Of the conventional liquid soaps, three were rated as “very good” and 21 received the grade “good”.
Some soaps contain questionable fragrances
On the other hand, points were deducted for four soaps that contain an artificial musk scent that can accumulate in human fatty tissue. The eco-testers found the halogenated organic preservative chloromethylisothiazolinone (CIT) in one product. It can trigger strong allergic reactions – and is even forbidden in creams.
Even if this does not apply to washable soaps, the conclusion of the eco-testers is: “There are harmless alternatives.” They awarded the grade “insufficient” four times and the test result “poor” once.
Tip: Around half of the tested soaps are also available in refill bags. This saves packaging waste if you don’t use a new soap dispenser bottle every time. dpa
