laundry detergent and bleach

[LittleMonkeysMum]

Any tips for getting whites properly white, have loads of grotty sheets and towels which I'd like to avoid using bleach on, but must admit am pretty close to giving in! Also OH's work shirts beginning to suffer.
Also tips wanted for getting nappies fresh and clean smelling. Am up to a 75 degree wash cycle as they have become older and less 'fresh'!

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Being a slob, I found that many of my work shirts had stains that quite aggressive chemistry would not shift.
Instead I went for non-white shirts.

As for nappies, that's one reason we use disposables. the impact of boiling chlorine based chemicals seems to be about the same.
I suspect that you'd probably have a smllaer environmental impact by lower temperature washes with a drop of chlorine.
It's not clear to me how you can have any chemical that bleaches without being bad for the environment. Nappy stains are robust organic molecules, and anything that takes them out is going to attack anything else that once lived.

That being said, ours were long out of nappies before caring about stains or smell. As long as a nappy is clean I can't see why it matters.

Best way I've found to 'bleach' whites is to hang them out on the line in the sunshine! Works a treat. Same goes for nappies. I wash mine on a 60deg wash with eco balls and a handful of soda crystals. The sunshine (when we have it!) bleaches out any stains that might be there and drying on the line makes even the oldest nappy smell fresh. If the weather isn't in my favour I try to dry them on the airer rather than tumble dry. I find that tumbling makes the smells linger.

As for the shirts, I had a similar thing with DS!'s school shirts, so now he wears coloured ones. Sorted!!!

I use ecover laundry liquid and then add ecover bleach for a white wash. Line dry them afterwards- my whites have never been whiter!

I used to use Surcare because DS1 has very sensitive skin but have fairly recently switched to Ariel/Persil tabs - non-bio but still the performance is far superior to Surcare (at the same temp)

Towels can be washed at 90, LMM - that might help; you could try adding Vanish or Oxy powder to the sheets. I agree that drying on the line in the sun helps a lot (but you do need a) space for a line and b) sun to hang them in!)

Nappies can be washed at 90 too, can't they?

And don't put anything remotely coloured in with whites, that can make them go grey.

but washing at 75 or 90 degrees uses a lot of energy... not that env. friendly, is it?
I wonder if using something like a non-chlorine bleach (napisan? Oxycleanse?) is half-okay thing to do.