ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION Alkyl polyglucosides are used primarily in laundry detergents, cleaning agents, and cosmetics (see Chapter 9), which, after use, pass quantitatively into wastewater. Depending on whether the wastewater is treated biologi-
cally or only mechanically, very small to large amounts of these surfactants (this applies to all surfactants used in the laundry detergent and cleaning agent sector) pass everywhere into natural watercourses with the effluent from sewage treatment plants. Because of this fact, surfactants, and thus alkyl polyglucosides as well, must be termed environmental chemicals in the literal sense of this term. The constant input of surfactants into the environ ment requires a particularly careful ecological characterization of this class of compounds. To estimate the hazards due to these chemical compounds for the environmental compartments into which they pass, their residence time and their effects are the essential factors. The residence time of sur factants in the environment is directly linked to their biodegradability. Bio degradation is the single elimination mechanism that leads to mineraliza tion of surfactant molecules. Since biologically hydrolyzed or oxidized surfactant molecules lose their toxicity to aquatic or terrestrial forms of life, the criterion of their “degradability” has a higher ranking than their ecotoxicity. Therefore consideration is first given to the biodegradation of alkyl polyglucosides.
