Home > The Environment Minimal impact cleaning products, made from biodegradable citrus by-products. A New Name in Cleaning Products - Who Are We? CITRUS RESOURCES is a trading name and division of Wedina Holdings Pty Ltd (ACN 002 373 319) which also manufactures the RESEARCH PRODUCTS brand of cleaning and maintenance products. RESEARCH PRODUCTS is recognized as one of the major innovators and suppliers in the carpet cleaning and hard floor chemical market in AUSTRALIA, ASIA and PACIFIC markets. Natural Cleaning Products - Our Philosophy We believe that it is time for all responsible people to start doing something about protecting our beautiful country now - NOT when forced to by legislation, then it will be too late. CITRUS RESOURCES has taken simple, renewable and harvested citrus crops and other plantation by products and turned them into the most natural, highly biodegradable cleaning products ever produced for commercial use. What are Citrus By - Products? There are over 40 different materials extracted from waste orange peel, pip and pulp as well as fresh juices. We use the magical deodorizing effect of limes, the incredible solvent degreasing effect of D-Limonene (a solvent extracted from orange oil) to give you a standard of product purity, biodegradability and performance that cannot be synthesized or matched by petroleum base. Combined with citrus crop by-products; we have used malt, castor oil and coconut or palm oil soap and detergents and sugar alcohols to provide cleaning benefits with little or no impact and high biodegradability. No Phosphates, Sulphates, Petroleum Solvents or Benzene Detergent Bases. The phosphates in detergents are helpful in suspending soil, softening water and boosting detergency. Their side effect is they are natural fertilizers which boost the growth of marine and weed to threaten marine and higher aquatic life. Sulphates are detergent fillers that serve no active purpose in detergents except to make them cheaper. Sulphates give problems in water way and sewerage lines because they are converted to sulphuric acid and hydrogen sulphide gas when in contact with acidic food and body wastes. This destroys the cement in pipe joints and puts further pressure on our treatment works. No SILICATE or caustics are used, our only alkali source coming from ammonia, a substance that evaporates away after its job is done. With the phasing out of III TRICHLOROETHANE (Methyl Chloroform) and other ozone depleting solvents like Methylene Chloride, perchlorethane and Chlorofluorocarbon (C.F.C.) we can offer a more ecological alternative to petroleum solvents or glycol ether solvents - it happens to be orange solvents or D-Limonene. No quats because their toxicity and difficulty in degrading they will not be used in any of the CITRUS RESOURCES formulations. Quats in disinfectant bases are highly toxic to marine life. CITRUS RESOURCES is a major supplier of purified ultra high grade D-Limonene in various aqueous and volatile formulations as an alternative. Not only are these products safer and less toxic to use, they are biodegradable and clean better than aliphatic hydrocarbons. In fact, they played a major part in the Middle East oil slick clean ups. The Benzene Sulphonarte Question (LAS) A number of “ecologically safe” domestic cleaning products contain L.A.S. and “hard” detergents called Nonyl phenol ethoxylates. We use newer technology products with natural base coconut oil. Carefully check the safety data sheets and labels on the products you are currently using - you may get a shock! The People Behind CITRUS RESOURCES A concept and a company is only as good as the people behind it. CITRUS RESOURCES products were developed by John Goldsmith. With over 20 years in the cleaning industry and marketing, he was responsible for the introduction of ecologically safer trigger sprays into the commercial and domestic cleaning product markets in Australia during the 80’s. John was also responsible for the development of the Research Products range and the Dry Fusion System. The technical side is headed by our Chief Chemist - Alex Roudenko. CITRUS RESOURCES produces the safest, high performance and highly biodegradable alternative products for cleaning. Biodegradable What does it mean? BIODEGRADABLE means simply “degraded by natural bacteria”. If referred to a cleaning product, it means that each part of that product will be divided and converted into more simple and smaller parts which are more environmentally acceptable than when they are one. Biodegradation is nature’s mechanism for self-preservation. The main thing that assists the biodegradation process is bacteria and to a lesser extent enzymes. These non-dangerous bacteria live in the earth, the sea, in sewerage treatment plants and in septic tanks. Isn’t everything Biodegradable? The answer is 'yes'! If a solid block of stone is left out in the weather for 100 years, in a sense it would be partially biodegraded or become smaller. So, obviously, we must look at how long things take to degrade. When it comes to detergents, the Australian Standards AS1792 says that 80% must break down in 21 days. The O.E.C.D. screening test 301E (1981) is even more stringent. Because highly biodegradable detergent raw materials are more costly, the majority of smaller companies are not using them in AUSTRALIA. There is only a recommendation to use them, not a law, and it applies only to the surfactant or soap part of a detergent not all the ingredients. Our soap detergent additives have been tested and more than comply with the Australian Standards and the O.E.C.D. standard with all able to degrade over 90% in 21 days. The toxicological,and above all, the ecological tolerance of all our products has the prime criteria in the solution of the raw materials and the processes used. Here’s the Staggering News Under the current recommendations, only detergent cleaning agents need be biodegradable, other ingredients like petroleum solvent and glycols, ethers and phosphates can be placed in the detergents and that detergent can still claim to be biodegradable. This includes NTA’s and EDTA’s which can remain in the water as well as holding heavy metals in solution for years. CITRUS RESOURCES is working towards ultimate biodegradability where all ingredients used in the cleaning products are biodegradable. For instance, our CITRUS solvents biodegradability is faster than petroleum solvents. We are not using Phosphate substitutes such as NTA or EDTA’s, because they do not biodegrade fast enough. We use natural non-petroleum based ingredients because they are more easily broken down in our environment and ease the pressure on sewerage and septic systems. We think its time you took stock of the products you are using and carefully check their biodegradability and raw materials.   © Copyright Citrus Resources 2004.