I posted the following: "I am trying to make a shower gel that has a scent but is not toxic to either humans or aquatic life. And I have a hard time finding anything for the latter. Essential oils and derivatives? Nope. Synthetic ones? Nothing. I could go the unscented route, but it’s going to be hard to sell. So, considering that most of you are better informed about this topic, is there a specific ingredient that I can use for a rose fragrance that’s truly non toxic? Thanks "
On fragrange, zerowaste and sustainability. The post got deleted by mods in a manner of minutes. What the hell is going on there? I am going to stay here for much longer since that place is turning very weird. Also, can anyone here actually help me find a fragrance ingredient that won’t kill aquatic life when poured down the drain? Thank you in advance
Unfortunately, the essential oils, as well as the rose water and distillate are toxic to aquatic life when poured down the drain (as the case for shower gel). These are not harmful for humans, as long as it stays on clothes, skin, etc. That’s what I found with pretty much all available products when checking the FDS / MSDS.
Since so much is harmful, you might want to go the opposite route. What is not harmful to aquatic life? Is there anything with a nice smell?
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find anything that’s fragrant and fully non toxic. There are bio, eco and vegan claims, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be toxic…
Have you tried aquatic plants? Some of them must have a smell when taken out. That might be fun to check them out.
I don’t know if there are any pleasantly fragrant aquatic plants. I will check it out, this is a neat idea.
I hope something works out for you.
I actually checked a few options and anything fragrant is outside the water for pollinators, which makes sense. I also did check essential oils from water lilies and still hazardous to water life… the search continues.
The SDS will be for the oil itself, not at the final concentration used in the shampoo or whatever.
Are you sure the final product is at a toxic concentration? Probably the detergent itself is more dangerous as used. That’s just a guess though.
I really get what you’re saying and obviously I intended to use a small amount to get a nice fragrance. But if enough people are going to use the product, then it can become problematic. Can I sell it then with a straight face as a truly eco friendly product? I dont think so…
Everyone who uses it will contribute to the dilution. It’s not like 1:1000 dilution from a single person’s shower becomes 1:100 if 10 people use it or 1:1 for a thousand. No, they each will use large amounts of water that dilute it down.
People don’t pour their soap down the sink (at least not for any normal uses); they use a small amount which gets washed away with a lot more water.
I’d suggest finding what concentration things are dangerous at and whether they break down organically or not. Then you can aim to keep your product below that concentration if you can so even if someone did pour it down the drain it wouldn’t be harmful. And if you confirm it will break down, you know you aren’t contributing to long-term build up either.
When they’re used in cleaning concentrations, are they that harmful? I see commercial products with them, so they can’t be super terrible. Drain water still has to go thru municipal water systems before it’s released back into nature.
I think they are harmful. Although I am not sure to what extent. What worries me is making a product that gets popular and enough people use it to make a (negative) impact on the environment if I don’t carefully choose the ingredients.
Make your own rose water from locally obtained rose petals. All rose petals are eventually going to fall on the ground and decay. Any toxic compounds in the rose petals are going to end up released into the environment and washed into the watershed eventually. If you use them for bath soap, you’re just temporarily using them in the path they would already take if left to their own devices. If anything, you’re decreasing the contamination to the environment, as anything that goes down your shower drain will be filtered by the municipal water treatment plant before being released into the watershed.