Vegan Kosher Halal Alert: Fabric Softeners Are Made From Rendered Animal Fat

Eww. As if all those synthetic fragrances weren't enough to discourage a reasonable person to switch to a plant-based fabric softener, now I find out that my mom and grandma have been softening my clothes in animal fat for years? Why not just dip clothes in bacon grease? OK, people, NOT SERIOUS! Yes, I still eat meat, but I like the plant-based softeners with the lavender oil in it; it smells so much better than the fake 'April fresh' stuff. Can the plant-based companies make a fabric softener with a rose scent made from rose oil? That would convert more people over to plant-based fabric softeners than a Billy Graham revival.

Eyyooww Ick Pew. Rendered animal Fat? That's so disgusting.

Oh, hang on a minute, isn't that what they call "soap"?

Kashrut is dietary law. Please don't eat the fabric softener.

LA: I spent the morning at a Bat Mitzvah reading Leviticus to figure this out and just touching the stuff is unclean- there is more to it than just eating.

Geez-us....I have always been too much of a cheap skate to buy fabric softener in addition to wash but now I definitely will not.

Oh. My. GAWD!

And Deuteronomy 22:11 says you better not be washing clothing of mixed fabrics because that's a sin. The Bible is full of a lot of stupid commandments.

I'll let the Rabbis duke it out as I am not Jewish, but I read just recently that insulin, not being a dietary, was allowable even if derived from pigs. Your interpretation of Leviticus may vary. First paragraph here backs me up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashrut

Barring religious reasons to not come in contact with the stuff, why else would you be against its use? Would it be preferable to toss the animal fat which is likely just a small portion of the leftover products from the meat industry, and consume additional resources to make fabric softener?

Well, Andrew, sometimes companies figure that if people are buying a product, there is DEMAND for the product. I don't want anyone to think that I demand rendered animal fat to make my clothes silky smooth.

Rich is right, Kashrut deals only with things you eat. So Insulin from pigs is OK. If you are ill a Jew doesn't have to fast on Yom Kippur too. A fabric softener doesn't have to be Kosher unless it comes in contact with food or you eat it. But it is only fair to mention animal fat is used in a product. Being Jewish, vegetarian and diabetic I would like to know clearly if something contains pig or any meat products or sugar. If it doesn't bother Anonymous so be it, but some respect is not a great thing to ask for, "The Bible is full of a lot of stupid commandments" is out of line. BTW Bryan the Nazis used human fat to make soap! May be that was OK too?

I am not Jewish, and would barely consider myself "religious". I also hang dry 90% of the time, but I thought this article was great- I will certainly use the stuff even less.
Andrew is right that it's better to use it than to toss it, but I think that there are MANY other industrial uses that are far more essential than making stuff feel soft, especially when there are more humane alternatives.

Buying products with leftovers from the meat industry is condoning the behavior of the meat industry. It gives them just one more reason to mass produce and treat animals terribly. I am not a vegan, but I am vegetarian. I only buy farm fresh eggs and cheese from animals that I can see are being treated well. I know there are lots of places that it isn't possible to do that, but that doesn't mean you can't be aware of the things that you are buying. The choice for me is easy. If an animal had to suffer so my teeshirt is soft then it isn't an option for me. And if you are on treehugger then you probably already know the terrible consequences factory farming has on the environment. Why feed the business of destroying our planet by buying it's leftovers? Especially when there are other options.

Is anyone else flashing to Tyler Durden...."to make soap, first we render fat..." and then "with enough soap you can blow up just about anything..."

Word.

Anon - there's a difference between Deuteronomy and Keeping Kosher. One that even a Godless Heathen like myself can respect.

I don't use fabric softener because I think it's a waste of money/resources. And I'm allergic to the fragrances they add. (think: hives.)

Oh no, my fabric softener was created with animal by-products not telepathically blessed by an invisible man, gosh!

Consuming byproducts of inhumane factory farming is just as bad as eating the flesh of the dead creatures. There is a larger economic system at work where the factory farms need to market all of the bits and pieces of the animals to stay in business.

If you eat lard, butter, eggs, milk, cheese, and meat and wear leather and wool, you are supporting an industry that uses up vast quantities of natural resources and pollutes the environment with greenhouse gasses. You are also damaging your body by ingesting unhealthy fats and cholesterol that only cause disease and death.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to live a long, healthy life.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
-Mathatma Gandhi

@Andrew: I'm a meat eater who's never tried being a vegetarian for more than two weeks or so, but a lot of vegetarians and vegans feel that working with any animal product is a slippery slope, even if it is a byproduct. I can understand their logic, and I respect that choice. For the record, I do try to avoid eating red meat too often, and if I can get a good vegetarian option on my campus, I'll get it.

I personally don't use fabric softener as I just try to buy clothes that are soft to begin with and wash them gently in cold water and dry them at a lower temperature. Makes them last longer. When I'm at home, my mom is more or less the same, only using it for really old towels or sheets.

The rendered animal fat honestly isn't that big a deal for me. Still, interesting to hear where things come from. Since most people don't use that much softener to begin with, this probably isn't as harmful for the environment as eating meat often.

The FDA or some other regulatory agency should come out with a vegan and/or vegetarian stamp for both foods and products. Preferably one of each. I know I'm probably going to get some guy who's anti-any regulation to complain about my post, but I figure that informed consumers can only help capitalism work the way the right wingers claim it should. The arguments against product transparency really shoot a foot in the typical anti-regulation rhetoric that says consumers will buy what fits with their ethics.

For people who like the feel of fabric softener, are there any vegan options?

Also, I'm curious as to what's greener, soap made from vegetable oils, petroleum, or animal fat. Pragmatically, I'd like to know.

What is "Fabric softener" for anyway? I thought that was just a white trash thing, like "glade plug ins"

Religious issues aside, given that Rendered Animal Fat has the ability to carry prions/BSE I'd rather the manufacturers were required to publicise the contents more clearly.
Iis Downy the only fabric softener that contains Rendered Animal Fat or do the others as well?

I have never been a fan of fabric softener. I find it makes clothes feel slick and not quite clean. I also don't like how it makes towels less absorbent. I used to use dryer sheets though to control static and add softness. Recently I gave them up. You know what? I haven't noticed any difference. My clothes (both the ones I hang dry and the ones that go in the dryer) are still soft and static-free. I know not everyone will agree with me but I wonder how many of us blithely use softeners because we think we won't like the results without them. Try it for a few laundry loads--see if maybe you don't need it at all!

This is a good article to help inform people, but any self-respecting tree hugger would not use fabric softener anyway. It is a waste of money and resources as someone already said above - - it is an extra amount of goop to buy in a plastic bottle that is not environmentally sound in probably most of its ingredients or packaging, that has a negligible effect on your clothes. I loathe those "softening" dryer sheets too.. they always seem incredibly toxic to me. People don't stop and think sometimes: "how could a paper put in my dryer be softening my clothes? is it coating it with some black magic- slippery crap?" I prefer to save money, not have an extra bottle to lug to the laundry, and not put money into added chemicals that just do not serve any real important purpose.

What the hell, people? Where do you think soap came from? And yes, animal fat has the ability to carry prions and good luck getting rid of that! We made them! We also made all the minute nirdles floating around in our blood stream. Maybe if we all woke up out of this post-industrial slumber of not doing a thing for ourselves we'd be able to actually save the planet.

I also hang dry 90+% of the time, but for the other small amount of the time... do you think that the dryer sheets are the same??

I recently began using soap nuts, primarily to be a good steward of the water system. One of the pleasant unexpected side effects is that our clothes are soft and do not require fabric softener or dryer sheets for static cling.