Set up by high profile Australian's Jon Dee, Pat Cash, (former Wimbledon winner), Tina Jackson and Ben Kearney all social change and environmentalists at heart; with the aim to establish a series of innovative campaigns to bring about real and measurable change. Just to highlight ONE of the fabulous changes Do Something! has done for Australians is the national ban on phosphates in laundry detergent.
Phosphates have been banned in American washing detergents since the mid 90s. They are known to contribute to the deposit of nutrient rich residues in our rivers and lakes, which in turn can offset the nutrient balance of the waterways and cause algal blooms. This was a known problem in the Darling river in the early 90s yet Australia continued to produce laundry detergents with phosphate, even when proven formulas have been the only option in America for some time.
Aldi supermarkets were the first to join forces with Do Something and announce a phase out of all laundry detergents containing phosphates by 2013. Since then Unilever the makers of OMO, Surf and Drive laundry detergents have implemented phosphate free formulas in all of their major brand laundry detergents. Coles and Woolworths have also announced that they too will ban phosphates from all homebrand and private label laundry detergents by 2011 and 2012.
Sebastian Lazelle, the chairman of Unilever stated "that phosphate has a higher greenhouse gas impact than other ingredients so we have replaced it with lower greenhouse gas alternatives. ....and by simply using new OMO, an Australian household can save 20kg of CO2 a year."
Thanks to Do Something! the choice for such products on our supermarket shelves is now the easy choice, being fairly priced with comparable quality wash results.
Read about more social or environmental issues Do Something! are doing Something about and donate to this great non profit Who is creating great change for Australians. Thank you Do Something!
