What is it made from?
Ingredients: ISOPROPANOL, GLYCERINE, HYDROGEN PEROXIDE.
Where does it come from?
Made in the UK.
Is it sustainable?
I’m not going to lie; hand sanitiser doesn’t contain the most eco-friendly of ingredients, but at least we’ve got the packaging sorted. If you are going to buy hand sanitiser, the ingredients discussed below will no doubt be in whatever hand sanitiser you buy.
Isopropyl Alcohol – A kind of alcohol as its name suggests. It is used widely in common household cleaning and hygiene products that aim to kill pathogens/germs, including disinfectants, antiseptics and detergents. Hand sanitisers tend to contain this ingredient or another alcohol-based chemical. Isopropyl alcohol is used in these products because of its effectiveness at removing harmful pathogens, and also because it has low toxicity in comparison to other chemicals with similar properties, and so is much safer to use for everyday cleaning purposes. Isopropyl alcohol typically comes in a solution suspended in water, as the water helps to penetrate the outer pores of bacteria allowing the isopropyl alcohol to get inside and do its thing. This chemical is made by reacting propene and water and then distilling the isopropyl alcohol to separate it from other by-products of this method. Propene is a product of the oil industry, so I can’t say I’m a fan of this ingredient. I am unsure whether this can be made by an eco-friendlier method, or whether there are alternatives that could be used, so more research is needed here.
Glycerine – Can be synthesised, but is mainly produced using plants such as soybean and palm (because they are the cheapest oils, it can also be made from other oils such as rapeseed). Some glycerine is made using tallow (animal fat), a lot of soap traditionally used glycerine made from tallow. This method using tallow obviously is not vegan, but most glycerine is now produced using vegetable oils, as these are cheaper and easier sources of production. Glycerine is a viscous liquid which has moisturising and smoothing properties. Glycerine is also naturally antimicrobial and antiviral – pretty important qualities for a hand sanitiser ingredient! It is used to treat wounds and burns as it helps reduce inflammation and its moisturising abilities help it soothe damaged skin. Glycerine isn’t only used in cleaning and hygiene products, it is also used as a sweetener in foods due to its sweet flavour, many gummy sweets, for example, contain glycerine.
I am deeply saddened that the glycerine in this formula is produced using palm oil. This makes it vegan (as glycerine can be made out of tallow so worth checking out the source if you see this ingredient) but I’m very against palm oil so I’m loath to blindly accept this. As palm oil is the most widely used base substance to produce glycerine, I think I can probably say that unless otherwise stated, all hand sanitiser containing glycerine is most likely made using palm oil. It’s a sad fact, but I can’t change everything at once, and although I’m providing a plastic-free product with a zero-waste supply chain, (two ticks in the right direction) I have to accept that this is what the glycerine is currently produced from. Hand sanitiser is for some people quite vital to their wellbeing and health, so I’ll have to sit on my hands a little here for the time being. The
