How do you wash your clothes? Using detergent is possibly the most common answer. These days, it feels almost impossible to do it differently. Unfortunately, detergent products have their disadvantages, especially to nature. Finding environmentally friendly detergents sounds more like a dreamy idea. Then, how about using kaolin for detergents?

Dilemmas In Using Detergents

Using detergent to wash our clothes has been an effective, quick way since the industrial era. We manage to have more clean clothes in such a short time. That way, the work does not feel so long and tedious. We still have more time and energy to do a lot of other things besides house chores.

Unfortunately, using detergent to wash our clothes also means leaving so much toxic waste into the environment. The soapy water we use for washing our clothes always leads back to the rivers and eventually the oceans. Imagine how it keeps reducing the amount of clear water for us to use.

In short, here are three (3) main problems when it comes to using detergents to wash our clothes:

1. Pesky Stains

Whether it is laundry detergent or simply a softener, it does not always dissolve in the wash. It does not matter if it is in liquid, powder, single-pack products, or undispersed softeners either. There is that waxy-like sensation, or large blue stains still left on fabric after the wash.

2. Bacteria Buildup

Collars, pockets, and other tight spots in your outfit may have it even after the wash. It often happens if you use too much laundry product and do not always rinse those parts perfectly clean.

3. Harmful Chemicals

Some detergent products have unlisted chemicals; they are in the mixture but not written on the labels. It may sound creepy, but unfortunately, true.

How Kaolin In Detergents Works?

Illustration of kaolin in detergent works

Kaolin has been identified as one of the most significantly important types of clay minerals. Many products use white kaolin clay, such as toothpaste, paints, ceramics, paper, rubber, and glass industries. Kaolin is also used for soap, deodorants, detergents, and softeners. In soap, kaolin is used as a filler. This production strategy has managed to cut some costs in the making.

In soap production, kaolin is used for its ability to absorb oil and water. Many also use it as a scent-fixer, a polisher for gentle skin, or at least to help the improvement of the soap’s opacity and whiteness levels.

Kaolin also has four (4) abilities as an additive for different types of skin:

  • To purify
  • To nourish
  • To soothe
  • To heal

Kaolin is also considered an ideal additive for its ability to control the mud solution’s thickness level. It helps to improve your blood circulation to your skin and eliminate wastes and toxins.

The amount of kaolin for detergents, as in laundry soap, is generally about 5% during making the detergents. By International Equitable standard, the kaolin added in these products can go between 5 to 10%.

Kaolin can clean tooth enamel without damaging its surface. For personal use, detergent soap made with kaolin in the mixture also helps to improve your skin health with the four abilities mentioned above.

Then, what about kaolin as part of the laundry detergent products?

As mentioned before, one of the dilemmas in using laundry detergent is the pesky stains that stay in the fabric. If the laundry detergent has white kaolin clay in it, then those pesky stains are removed easier without shredding the clothes you wash.

Before being added to many products (including detergent products), kaolin has already been tested. For detergent products (personal-use soaps and laundry soaps), kaolin is added into the mixer stage. It means the detergent products are not fully-finished. Although the soap is already dried, it still waits for other ingredients to be added—for example, scent, color, and many more.

Once the mixer stage is done, the soaps and laundry detergents are supplied to the soap industry.

Since kaolin is used to reduce the production costs of the soap and laundry detergent, it is mostly for low-grade laundry and toilet soaps in the International Equity Association.

Kaolin is a natural resource. As a natural clay mineral, it helps to absorb water and oil. To have kaolin for detergents means to remove pesky stains easily and reduce environmental problems.