Do You Know What’s in Your Laundry Detergent?: Media Convergence Invades the World of Nonprofits

The phenomenon of media convergence is so powerful in that it is always constantly evolving and extending to new sectors.

In fact, media convergence is changing the face of nonprofits and social enterprises.

I recently attended a speaker series titled “A Changing Nonprofit Industry” and hosted by Northwestern student group campusCATALYST, which addressed just that.

Something that struck me as particularly interesting was the story told by Mr. Dillinger, one of the guest speakers at the event. He was telling the story of how he developed the idea for his social enterprise, a for profit business organization that focuses on three primary goals: social missions, financial, and environmentalism—a triple bottom line.


Most people, myself included, don’t stop to think about mundane things, like their Tide laundry detergent, and their impact on the environment. Perhaps that’s a good thing because the alternative may be scarier than we could ever imagine.


At the lecture, Mr. Dillinger shared the story of the first time he saw his wife doing laundry. She dumped into the laundry machine cup after cup of Tide laundry detergent. Because he was environmentally conscious, he frantically went to stop her right away. He asked her, “Do you know what you just did?” Unsurprisingly, she had no idea.


*Image from source http://www.scienceinthebox.com/en_UK/programs/laundrydetergent_en.html

He went on to explain to her the harmful impacts that the 6 billion dollar per year laundry detergent industry (in the U.S. alone) casts on our environment. For example,

each load of laundry requires an average of 30 gallons of water.

Every year, each laundry machine pours out 330 billion gallons of polluted, dirty, chemically filled water, and some of these chemicals take decades to break down. All this water, in turn, flows into our lakes…rivers…ocean…you get the idea. But that’s not all. Consider the energy required to manufacture the laundry detergent. What about delivery? What about the waste that the box creates after its use?


Mr. Dillinger was in disbelief about how uneducated the public is regarding these important issues and their impacts. He decided to create a social enterprise focused on creating documentaries and videos to teach the public about these facts to raise awareness about our environment. To air these videos, he pitches to major TV networks, including educational, prime time, and news networks. Following Mr. Dillinger’s lead, I believe that many different social enterprises will spring up to take part in this revolution. Clearly, media convergence is creating and serving as the catalyst for this important change in the direction of philanthropy.