The industry has been under constant attack for its adverse impact on the environment. The synthetic detergents simply do not degrade in cold climates leading to the "continued washing of the fishes and the frogs weeks after the laundry was done". The return to palm oil as a renewable and biodegradable active ingredient seemed a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, a dramatic increase in demand for fatty acids from palm oil lead to an expansion of palm plantations in Asia and Latin America, speeding up the destruction of the rainforest, including the obliteration of the habitat of the urang utan.

Yusuke Saraya, president of a medium-sized Japanese detergent maker Saraya realized the damage done, and the adverse trend which is not appreciated by consumers. He  went on to create safe-haven corridors for wildlife, including the dwarf elephant, listed as an endangered species in Kalimantan, Indonesia. And while the larger companies have agreed to farm palm sustainably, reality is that the cleaning up of the rivers in Japan, USA and Europe cannot be at the cost of wildlife habitat in the developing world. The main innovation is not ease of use and increased performance, but rather the search for ingredients that do have unintended consequences, and does not cause collateral damage.

Whereas market leaders put their research teams on the quest for less toxic optical brighteners, more efficient enzymes, soaps that work in cold water, detergents that require less water, Vivian Stars from Louisiana set out to find an alternative use for the left-over orange peels from the local orange juice factories. As consumption of orange juice increases, the processing expanded, the left-overs - which used to be an animal feed - turned into waste due to the preservation agents used to maintain freshness between harvest and processing. As the Brazilian producers of juice started filling tankers with juice, they soon started to extract limonene from the peels. Since the extraction is rather simple, using liquid CO2, which could be harvested sustainably as well, a new business model started emerging.

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Next: Part 3

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