A Little Goes a Long Way

It may not be the most glamorous object in our collection, but soap in one form or another has been doing its job for thousands of years. There is evidence that the Babylonians were making soap as far back as 2800 BC. But it wasn’t used for personal hygiene, but for cleaning and medicine. It wasn’t until the second half of the 19th century that cleanliness became associated with the prevention of disease, and improvements in manufacturing meant soap was cheaper and more widely available for everyone.  This unused pack of soap belonged to a Stroud resident and dates from before 1984 (when the halfpenny was taken out of circulation). Sunlight soap was designed for washing clothes and general household use. It was first developed by Lever Brothers in 1884 and by 1887 they were making 450 tons a week. As a result of this success the large factory built near Liverpool with a purpose-built village for the workers, was named Port Sunlight. Although Lever Brothers soon developed a soap for personal use and flakes for household use, Sunlight soap continued to be used and is still being used in some countries today, for personal as well as household uses.

Unopened soap 2007.227

Today there are a wide variety of soaps designed for a range of different purposes. Have you ever considered how many bottles of soap-like products we have in our homes? Toiletries such as hand soap, shower gel, shampoo and shaving foam. Cleaning products such as washing-up liquid, laundry tablets, dishwasher tablets and household cleaning spray. Most likely they’re all in plastic containers or an aerosol can. In the early 20th century some people would have had just one bar of soap wrapped in paper to do all these things. Our modern equivalents use a lot of single-use plastic, hard-to-recycle aerosols and non-recyclable packaging. In the Stroud District aerosols and various types of plastic can be recycled and the household recycling rate is over 60%, exceeding national targets. Recycling saves a lot of energy compared to making from scratch. According to Recycle More it takes 75% less energy to make a plastic bottle from recycled plastic compared to using virgin materials. But while it’s always good to recycle, it’s even better to reduce and reuse. While glass and metals like aluminium can be recycled repeatedly without loss of quality, plastic can often only be recycled once or twice. For example, food packaging can’t be recycled for the same usage because plastic degrades each time it is processed.

Sunlight soap 2007.227

In order to reduce, many are switching to buying their toiletries in bar form without plastic packaging. Even shampoo, conditioner and deodorant are sold in bars. A few slices of soap in a sisal pouch provides a plastic-free alternative to shower gel. Dishwasher tablets in non-recyclable packaging can be swapped for powder in a cardboard box. While we might not fancy scrubbing our clothes with soap any more, refill services are becoming increasingly popular. Numerous shops in the Stroud District offer laundry and washing-up liquid as refills, as well as other household cleaning products and toiletries such as shampoo, conditioner and hand soap. As well as reducing single-use plastic the products themselves are kinder to the environment when they enter the water system. Such little everyday changes might seem insignificant, but every effort to reduce makes a difference. As the South African advertising slogan for Sunlight Dishwash says: “a little goes a long way.”