INTRODUCTION

Learning to refurbish, repurpose, and reuse materials is at the forefront of our

minds as we strive to live healthier lives and reduce our carbon impact. The challenge is

determining how to maximize the value of our resources while reducing the amount we

waste. As we grow more efficient, we are beginning to consider how we may make better

use of the less evident resources in our life. Firewood ash is one of these lesser-known

reuses. Fireplaces have remained a popular way to save money especially in local places,

but what about recycling the ash? Wood ash, interestingly, is an excellent utensil

cleaning. Chemical compounds and cleaners certainly can remove grit, grime, and grease

from our plates, spoon, fork, and metals, but at what cost? As we use these chemicals,

the fumes are inhaled and can cause serious damage to our lungs. These sprays and

cleaners can also leave a film and a residue that may not be visible to the eye, but can

make its way into our water, onto our skin, and continue to be present long after its

original use. As a fine polishing compound, wood ash can be used. A well-burned ash has

such fine grit that it polishes and shines your utensils without scratching or damaging it.

The most significant advantage of using wood ash is that it is highly water soluble and

washes away easily. Using a wood ash combination, you may effectively clean and polish

fireplace glass, oven glass, stainless steel appliances, shower/bath glass with lime scales,

stainless steel kitchen sinks, and anything else that can accumulate grease, film, deposits,

or dirt.

Ash has a low nitrogen content but is high in calcium carbonate (30-40%) and

potash (10 percent). In agricultural soil, ash has long been employed as a liming and

deacidifying agent. As a wood bug repellant, polish, and abrasive cleanser, wood ash has
been utilized. Before 50 years, and still today in rural regions, ash, mud paste, and leaves

were used to clean household utensils, oily, sticky surfaces, and for hand washing. Many

people in low-income areas cannot buy soap and instead rely on ash or soil. Water alone

is less effective than ash or dirt. Nowadays, practically every family uses commercially

accessible dish and utensil washing supplies. These commercially available dish wash

bars are more common and frequently utilized to wash both home and commercial

utensils. Various chemicals are present in dish or utensil washing bars, powders, or

solutions, for example. Borax, surfactants, phosphates, and fragrances are all potential

environmental hazards. These dishwashing bars include a number of chemicals that are

potentially damaging to the environment. Second, using these bars is expensive for the

rural poor, and they may not be able to afford it. There is almost no evidence on the

effectiveness of wood ash for washing kitchenware in terms of removing micro flora.

There was almost little information about the formulation of handmade dish ash bars or

tests on their bacteria-removal abilities. The primary goals of this study were to develop

handmade ash-based dish wash bars and to investigate the efficacy and cost effectiveness

of these ash-based dish wash bars.

We can cut our trash and live a low-cost, sustainable existence by using the

findings of this study. These dishwashing bars are simple to make at home and are much

less expensive than commercially supplied dishwashing bars. The problem with using

chemical-based dish soap bars is that the compounds such as borax and phosphates are

hazardous to the environment, causing pollution when drained into water sources and

affecting aquatic life. The use of ash as the primary ingredient in dishwashing soap can

help to alleviate this problem. All of these dishwashing bars are inexpensive and
environmentally friendly, so they can be created and used in rural locations where ash is

abundantly available.

METHOD

Using dishwashing bar for cleaning utensils and others that can accumulate

grease, film, deposits, or dirt is an interesting thing. Ashes from the wood of a tree such

as acacia trees can be used to make a dishwashing bar.

First is, basically we are going to collect the ashes from the firewood and put it on

a container then put water in it and stir it until our mixture combined. Ashes has a lot of

potassium in it and water is made up of h2o so there’s more hydrogen. So, when mix

these two together we're going to get potassium hydroxide.

Let the mixture sit for about 2-3 days and let the water as much potassium as it

possibly can. The ash should sink in the bottom of the container. When the ashes sink in

the bottom, the clear liquid on top is basically live water that is probably not

concentrated. If the mixture is ready or if you want it to be concentrated, then we are

going to separate the water from the ash. You can use clean shirt to separate it. Pour the

water in a stainless-steel pot.

Put it on a stove and get it boil. In the process of heating this up, it can create

some nasty fumes that you really don’t want to be breathing, so probably the better way

is probably do it outside.
 So how do we know if it is concentrated or not? Well, we're going to be doing the

old test which also works with a potato, if we take an egg or potato and then put it in the

water it should float then it is concentrated and if it is not floating it tells us this is not

concentrated enough.

If the egg or potato float, then the live water has the right concentration and then put it on

a container.

Bring another pot in a stove in low heat and put one cup of lard and melt it.

During the time that it is melting, add 3/8 of a measuring cup of the concentrated lye

water and stir it until it melts. If it’s good, pour the live water. This process is going to

end up being softer than a regular soap or type of soap you’d buy in a store generally.

If we want to make sure that this gets a little hard, we can go ahead and put

teaspoon of sea salt in it. Keep stirring it for about 30 minutes until we get to what’s

known as a trace, and the trace is where it turns into something that looks like pudding.

Don’t let the mixture gets too hot because it’ll cause separation. Also, don’t let it

gets too cold because you can get what’s known as a false trace where it looks like kind

of solidified because it’s gotten too cold, so the fat is starting to set up. So, keep it warm

or in a low heat and keep stirring for 30 minutes.

During this time, the smell of it is not that fantastic but it is clean. If the mixture is

taking a long time to thicken or to have trace, just add a little bit of lye water and keep

stirring it for another 20 minutes.