A recent study delivered at the American Chemical Society (ACS) organized 241st National Meeting & Exposition by Cara A.M. Bondi and her colleagues cracked the fabled myth about green products.
The research disclosed that the components utilized in most of the so called green products also contained petroleum as source instead of 100% plant-based sources. For the purpose of the research, the team utilized a variant of the carbon-14 dating technique normally applied in determining the carbon level in the cloth, bone and other artifacts unearthed from ancient sites.
The research team has reported their analysis performed over a number of hand washes, liquid laundry detergents and liquids utilized for dishwashing samples. The green product samples tested for the purpose have proved a notable difference in the mentioned plant-based carbon contents and it ranged from 28%-97% in hand washes, 43%-95% in dishwashing liquids and from 28%-94% in liquid laundry detergents. The research also found that product with ‘green’ label had 50% or more plant- based carbons than the products without such claim. The research also pointed out the conflicting claims such as a ‘petrochemical free’ product contained only 69% of plant -based carbons and the rest of 31% from petrol deduced carbons.
Bondi explained that the origin of carbon is fundamental for any sustainability claim and it has become essential for the raw material suppliers and consumer products manufacturers to understand the level of plant derived carbon against petroleum derived carbon in their products to reduce the level of undesired petroleum -based carbon. She has suggested the inclusion of radiocarbon dating per ASTM D6866-10 as a process to verify the green carbon content in the raw materials and the finished products as well as to gauge the advancements made in the development of preparations.
Source: http://portal.acs.org/