green

I had never considered soap or shampoo as items to question on my packing list. However, during one of our prep sessions, we were told to consider the environment of the area we were going to. These people are going to be sharing their water supply with me - who am I to carelessly put whatever I want into it. Out of interest, I looked up all the ingredients on my shampoo.
To my surprise, it wasn't so bad: water (we drink it), ammonium lauryl sulfate (80% biodegraded within 15 days according to the 2002 "Human & Environmental Risk Assessment on ingredients of European household cleaning products"), sodium chloride (nothing wrong with salt), etc. But still, would I want use water with things like cocamide mea or cetyl alchohol floating in it if I had a choice?
The only thing of possible concern was sodium benzoate which can be carcinogenic with asorbic acid/vitamin C (FDA, 2007, http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/benzdata.html) but it's not in high concentrations.
The point of this isn't to bash the preservatives and chemicals that we use. (Although I still went out and got a 100% natural and biodegradable shampoo and conditioner.) It's to be conscious of the consequences of what we do and not to take things for granted - soft silky hair is so overrated!!
My next goal: ensure my items have minimal packaging/waste.