Most surfactants producers recognize the urgent need to reduce the environmental footprint of their products. Consumer goods companies have set ambitious Scope 3 targets to tackle indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the value chain. While global warming is critical, formulators and sustainability teams must look beyond GHG emissions to understand the full environmental impact of surfactants to create a truly more sustainable industry.
Carbon footprint isn’t the only footprint
Chemicals embedded in everyday products—from detergents and shampoos to paints, textiles, and pharmaceuticals—are essential to modern life, but they create complex environmental challenges. These impacts include upstream resource use, process emissions, hazardous byproducts, and downstream release to air, water, and soils. The following sections highlight three of the most critical considerations.
Water health
In water systems, chemical formulations can cause foaming and residues that complicate wastewater treatment. When chemicals pass through treatment plants or bypass them entirely, they can accumulate in groundwater and soils, harming crops, soil organisms and vegetation. Nutrient-rich formulations containing phosphorus and nitrogen can accelerate eutrophication, driving algal blooms that strip dissolved oxygen from water bodies and threaten aquatic biodiversity¹.
For surfactant developers, this means assessing aquatic impact early in formulation work—using life cycle assessment to understand eutrophication and ecotoxicity impacts, and conducting standardized environmental risk assessment testing to help identify and lower eutrophication drivers. Preliminary life-cycle data also suggest that replacing oleochemicals with captured CO₂ can reduce eutrophication potential, offering a meaningful opportunity to improve water health while maintaining performance.
Hazardous by-products
Hazardous by-products are a further concern. Substances such as 1,4-dioxane can form as impurities during manufacturing and remain in finished products. This compound is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a likely human carcinogen, and several U.S. states have set limits on its presence in household cleaning products. For the surfactants industry, guarding human health and avoiding regulatory pressure requires a prevention-first approach. Contaminants like 1,4-dioxane underscore the need to design processes and molecules that inherently avoid the formation of dangerous byproducts.
Biodegradability
Biodegradability is another central impact that extends beyond climate. The European Union’s Detergents Regulation sets strict biodegradability requirements where compounds are intentionally discharged to the environment after use. Poorly biodegradable chemicals can persist for long periods, leading to exposure for organisms and accumulation in soils and food chains. Beyond compliance, choosing readily biodegradable surfactants helps prevent long-term environmental accumulation and reduces pressure on wastewater infrastructure.
Designing the next generation of sustainable surfactants
Today, consumers are demanding more sustainable solutions, and environmental legislation is starting to drive the shift towards safer and less impactful alternatives. The surfactants industry has the opportunity to rethink its chemistry from the ground up, and use innovation to design environmental performance into products from the very start.
For instance, renewable surfactants, including those derived from captured CO₂, offer the potential to reduce toxicity, whilst meeting crucial biodegradability standards. Early data on Recreaire® (Econic’s CO₂-based surfactants) suggest they are readily biodegradable and contain no detectable levels of 1,4-dioxane, minimizing environmental persistence.
Furthermore, preliminary life-cycle data indicates CO₂–based surfactants can deliver measurable improvements across multiple impact categories, including eutrophication potential and land use, compared with conventional surfactants.
In conclusion
The industry’s sustainability challenges extend far beyond global warming, so it is critical to understand the full scale of impacts—from resource use and pollution to biodegradability.
There is no single solution; building the surfactants of the future will require a portfolio of innovative approaches. CO₂-based surfactants are one promising route, enabling the use of captured carbon instead of valuable natural resources, while also enabling biodegradable formulations that ease pressure on ecosystems.
By prioritizing renewable feedstocks, eliminating hazardous impurities, and ensuring robust biodegradability, next generation polymers such as Recreaire show how industrial performance and environmental integrity can go hand-in-hand.
References
¹ phosphorus-pressure-rbmp-2021.pdf
This article was written by Joe Evans, Econic’s Environmental Specialist. To learn more or contact Joe, click here.
