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Say I need to stock up on some shower gel. What would be a lesser evil pick?

  • 1 huge 5L bottle of liquid soap that uses cheap crappy pseudo-apple-and-jasmin perfume that will pollute the drain water, or
  • 20 small 250 ml plastic bottles of perfume-free shower gel; the bottles may not be recycleable where I live, so I will hand them over for professional burning
WhatHiFi
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    I'm trying to see if there are any perfume-free soap bars wrapped in paper out there in the meantime – WhatHiFi Sep 04 '21 at 14:17

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Typical apple scent is not that bad: while not completely free of hazard or health concerns, ethyl isovalerate is considered "best in class" by US Environment Protection Agency. In particular, it's much better than ethyl formate, another popular cheap artificial scent (lemon), which is known to be absorbed by the lungs and skin and hydrolyze to formic acid.

The jasmine part of the perfume remains unknown. Unfortunately, fragrances are considered trade secrets, so manufacturers often don't specify the exact composition on the label.

Considering the impact of producing and burning 20 250 ml plastic bottles, I would probably go for the 5L one.

Dmitry Grigoryev
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