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Ever wondered why we don't use any palm oil in our products? Read on to find out...
Palm oil is an edible plant oil that comes from the palm fruit. It is a common ingredient in a lot of everyday objects such as lip sticks, ice cream, chocolate, packaged bread, biodiesel and of course soap. It is used often because it is cheap to buy.
However the environmental effects caused by the production of this product, on both the rainforests and the animals who inhabit them are awful. The production of this oil causes issues such as deforestation as large areas of land and forest are cut down to make room for palm oil plantations.
Sustainable Palm Oil is an option however it has been accused of "greenwashing" the problem as it isn't all actually sustainable. According to the "say no to palm oil" website the RSPO (Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil) is currently the largest sustainability-focused organisation dealing with the palm oil problem. However their standards do not ban deforestation or the destruction of peatlands for the development of palm oil plantations.
The ones who are currently suffering the most from this problem are the animals who live in these areas. Again, according to the "say no to palm oil" website, Orangutans in particular have lost 90% of their habitat in the last 20 years and an estimate of 1000-5000 Orangutans are killed each year for these plantations. They are now a critically endangered species.
As an animal lover I found this information incredibly distressing and to us at The Kentish Soap Company, this is unacceptable which is why we have vowed to never use this ingredient in our products.
We even adopted our own Orangutan from Indonesia called Gokong back in January 2017 which allows us to regularly donate to The Orangutan Project.
Gokong is a 5 year old male Sumatran Orangutan. He was confiscated from the home of a palm oil plantation worker. When found he was weak, malnourished and very under weight. He was taken from his wild mother by a fisherman and sold to the worker for the equivalent of £5.89. Over the years since he was rescued he has made great progress thanks to the wonderful people who have worked with him and now lives with a group of other Orangutans in a Orangutan Quarantine centre in North Sumatra.
To find out more check out these websites: