ether and acetal carboxylates useful as detergent builders to replace sodium tripolyphosphate in detergent formulations are known to the art . certain polymeric polycarboxylates are also known to the art but all of these products suffer from either having poor builder properties or they are not readily biodegradable . according to the present invention , new and novel polyacetal carboxylates are provided which are stable under laundry use conditions , but depolymerize in acid media , making the fragments more readily biodegradable in waste streams .