Product Sustainability

The bleach cycle – from production to household use to disposal down the drain – is simple. It begins and ends with sodium chloride, common table salt. We call it the salt-to-salt cycle.

1. Clorox® regular bleach production: A 6.0 percent solution of sodium hypochlorite is combined with water.
2. Product use: Clorox® regular bleach, registered with the EPA as a disinfectant, reacts with soils and stains, making them easy to remove, and helps kill 99.99 percent of bacteria and viruses. The result is improved cleaning and whitening and quick, effective and economical disinfecting.
3. Return to salt: After household use, when disposed of down the drain, 95 percent to 98 percent of household bleach rapidly breaks down into salt and water. The remaining by-products are largely removed through the wastewater treatment process of most cities and water districts. No dioxins are formed. No by-products with the ability to build up over time in organisms are formed.

Since it was introduced in 1913, Clorox® regular bleach has had a long history of use in places where killing germs is critical: in hospitals, nursing homes, child-care centers, schools and restaurants. During World War I, in the days before penicillin, the lives of wounded soldiers were saved by the antibacterial properties of bleach. In the 1960s, when the first Apollo flights were heading into space, NASA used Clorox® brand bleach to decontaminate the capsules returning from orbit.

Confidence in the efficacy and impact of disinfecting bleach is why the world's leading public health agencies -- the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- recommend the use of bleach for controlling the spread of pathogens that can cause infections and other health threats.

Bleach is one of the most widely available, affordable disinfectants on earth, and the role it plays in public health continues to be critical.

• Bleach in school kitchens: As part of a healthy routine in school kitchens, the School Food Safety Network recommends the use of bleach for food-contact surface preparation areas to help reduce the potential for cross-contamination of food and the spread of Salmonella, E. coli and other bacteria that can make kids sick.
• Bleach usage for hospital-acquired infections: Each year, an estimated 1.7 million Americans contract infections while hospitalized. As many as 90,000 die. To help combat the problem, Clorox has partnered with the Association of Professionals in Infection Control on Protect Our Patients, a program to raise awareness of the steps hospital staff, patients and families can take to help protect patients in the hospital and at home. Hand washing is critical; so is disinfecting surfaces to help prevent the spread of hospital-acquired infections and other illnesses.
• Lending a hand: The Clorox Company Foundation has been donating Clorox® regular bleach to help purify water during times of disaster.

Frogs around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate.

One of the culprits detrimental to frogs is a chytrid (KIT-rid) fungus. To combat it, zoos and aquariums around the world are taking the most threatened species into "protective custody" in bio-secure environments. The frogs are treated with an anti-fungal medicine. Everything else is treated with a bleach solution to prevent the spread of the fungus: boots, clothing, instruments, and even the frogs' new environments.

For information go to fightforthefrogs.com.