Use of Market Forensics to Estimate the Environmental Load of Ingredients from Consumer Products

Abstract

Advances in analytical chemistry have led to numerous low-level observations of consumer product ingredients in environmental media. A "market forensics" approach complementary to a typical sampling and analysis campaign is described using readily available product formulation and market sales data to estimate the "down-the-drain" load to a wastewater treatment facility. A case study for common cleaning product ingredients is provided for a site in the USA. A regional per capita daily use rate was derived (0.33 g/ person/day) and applied to the residents resulting in an estimated daily influent load (2 kg). A single product type, liquid laundry detergent, was found to contribute 69% of the load alone.

Estimating fatty alcohol contributions to the environment from laundry and personal care products using a market forensics approach

“…previously published (25%) before the Wal-Mart sales data were available. 4,7 The residual sum of squares at the minimum point is signicantly greater than the values for Del City indicating other sources or processes have an effect on the inuent. Inspection of the inuent proles shows that the C 18 , a fatty alcohol with a small abundance in either faecal matter or consumer products, is present in relatively high amounts (Fig.…”

“…Since the product usage data are averaged over the whole of the sampled region, there are no differences in the proles between individual WWTPs within that region. By using the fatty alcohol composition for each product type, and using the proles determine through analysis, 4 the amount of each fatty alcohol entering the wastewater system can be determined. The proles for each region can be seen in Fig.…”

“…Therefore, only 33% of the surfactant in the product will be a fatty alcohol, which would bring the annual contribution down to 185 000 tonnes which compares to a value of 523 000 tonnes consumed in North America (includes Canada and Mexico) in 2012. 3 In the DeLeo et al paper, 4 it was noted that there are other fatty alcohol-based surfactants used in formulated products that are not considered here and there are commercial uses of these surfactants (hotels and other commercial laundries, etc.) that were also not included.…”

“…2,3 Typical products that contain these compounds include liquid hand soaps, liquid and powdered laundry detergents, hand dishwashing liquids, shampoos and deodorants. A study of these and other products 4 indicated that some products that were expected to contain fatty alcohols, such as fabric conditioners, did not at the time of sampling. Similarly, some particular product brands switch between olen sulphonates and alcohols depending on market conditions.…”

“…Data were subsequently obtained from IRI (Information Resources, Inc., http://www.iriworldwide.com/) on the products sold in the 24 weeks prior to the sampling in each of four areas in order to characterize the contribution of consumer products to the load of fatty alcohols in the inuent of WWTPs using a market forensics approach. 4 The sales data for the whole U.S. market were also obtained to allow extrapolation to the national scale.…”