Years ago people used to add liquid bluing to make their laundry whites look brighter.  The color blue, just like with a blue camera filter counteracts the yellow tinge that comes with laundering clothes often.  In modern liquid laundry detergent, optical brighteners are often used to achieve the same effect.  They are often harsh chemicals that bind to the fibers of the clothing and can cause allergic skin reactions.  Your clothes are not getting any cleaner- they just appear cleaner. They have no effect on actually getting bacteria out of clothing.  The reason liquid laundry detergent is so gooey is from a plethora of dyes and fillers that are added.  All that stuff then pollutes our water supply when they are rinsed out. 

There are other reasons you should avoid using liquid laundry detergent in those big plastic jugs.  First of all the significant amount of plastic used to  make those jugs is made up of unsustainable and polluting fossil fuels.  Most of these jugs ultimately wind up in the landfill.

Then there is the water used to produce these products and the fossil fuels required to transport their weight and mass. 

The alternative?  Use laundry detergent sheets.  These are squares of highly concentrated dehydrated laundry detergent that are free of parabens, phosphates, bleach, phthalates, and dyes, are lightweight and are not encased in plastic jugs.  I have used several brands and would never go back to liquid laundry detergent. Here’s a link on some 2022 ratings for good brands. 

Don’t be blue.  There are better alternatives for laundering with the environment in mind.