Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
A bleach that leaves the environment clean, too
Everyone knows bleach makes things cleaner, but until now its active ingredient, chlorine, has made the environment dirtier. Two companies have come up with a bleach that has no chlorine and boasts other environmental benefits as well.
The new bleach is not for home use, but for cotton on its way from field to cloth, as well as for other materials. Oils and waxes must be removed from cotton and it needs to be bleached white before it is dyed.
Huntsman, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, and Genencor, a division of Denmark’s Danisco, say the bleach uses less water and works at lower temperatures — 65 degrees centigrade (150 degrees f) instead of near boiling — than chlorine bleach. That helps save energy and makes it cheaper than chlorinated bleach.
The companies have quietly introduced the product as “Gentle Power Bleach” and will go on a marketing offensive next month at an industry conference in Hong Kong. They have already convinced one tough audience that what they have is real — the U.S. cotton trade association, Cotton Incorporated.
