Biodegradable: Detergents and the EnvironmentSynthetic detergents rapidly replaced soap for most domestic cleaning purposes after World War II. Concurrently, great billows of foam began passing undegraded through sewage treatment plants into receiving waters, which were often sources for domestic water supplies. The detergent industry quickly learned that many surface-active agents--the active ingredients of synthetic detergents and the producers of foam--were not readily biodegradable. The most popular surface-active agent was alkyl benzene sulfonate (ABS). Industrialized societies had developed satisfactory sewage processes to treat domestic wastes, but even the most advanced treatment facilities proved incapable of degrading ABS. Biodegradable examines the development of synthetic detergents and the unanticipated pollution of surface waters and groundwaters by this new technology, as well as the social, political, and industrial responses that resulted in correction of the problem. Public and governmental pressure in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Federal Republic of Germany led to the international detergent industry's finding a biodegradable substitute for ABS, namely, linear alkyl sulfonate (LAS). Its use from the mid-1960s solved the foaming pollution problem. The three countries responded to the problem very differently. West Germany almost immediately legislated that only those detergents that were more than eighty percent biodegradable could be sold. The U.S. government allowed the detergent industry to seek a solution while the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare monitored the industry's progress. In the U.K. the government created committees and required industry to cooperate with them to find a solution. Biodegradable not only examines problems resulting from a new technology but also compares and contrasts different societies' methods of dealing with these problems. |
Contents
The Foaming Problem Eruption and Analysis | 20 |
The Industrys Response to the Detergent | 33 |
The British Experience with Synthetic Detergents | 54 |
Copyright | |
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1st sess 88th Cong activated sludge aeration Air and Water alkyl benzene sulfonate alpha-olefins American anionic bill biochemical biodegradable biological Bogan carbon Chemical and Engineering Committee on Public Committee on Synthetic concentration decomposability degradable Detergent Association detergent industry detergent pollution problem Detergents in Sewage Detergents in Water Dreft drinking water effects effluent Engineering News 41 environmental fatty fatty alcohol frothing gents Germany Government hard detergents hard water Ibid Industrial Wastes 31 industry's Journal/American Water legislation methylene blue molecular sieves olefins ORSANCO percent Pollution Control Act Procter and Gamble removal reported Research Steering Committee Reuss rivers samples Sawyer Senate Sewage and Industrial sewage treatment plants Soap and Chemical Soap and Detergent Standing Technical Committee Subcommittee on Air suds sulfate surface-active agents surfactant Syndets Synthetic Detergents tests thetic detergents tion toxicity U.S. Congress United Water Pollution Control water supplies Water Works Association West German West Germany