Green Cleaning Products » cleaning eco friendly

Why Make Cleaning Eco Friendly?

Admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:20:08 +0000

We are bombarded with ideas, guidelines and instructions to make our lives Greener and reduce our Carbon Footprint. But should we be making our Cleaning Eco Friendly, and if so, why?

Green Cleaners Use Fewer Resources

It makes no difference whether you are a believer in climate change or not. There is simply no denying that the fact that there are far too many souls on our little planet to allow all of us to use resources at the rate the developed world has been doing so for the last fifty years. Now, we are used to having certain things, and using certain products it is difficult to give them all up. The realm of housework and domestic cleaning is something that has come a long way over the last century. I doubt there are many who would be happy to revert back to the days when looking after the home was a full time job, not just for the wife of the family, but also her daughters or staff. But, all that being said there is still plenty that could be done, if not to eradicate our impact on the planet, then certainly to reduce it.

Switch to Safer Greener Cleaners

Turning to Eco Friendly Cleaning Products and Methods is just one part of reducing the load our family is on the environment. But, there is a more immediate gain too. Many conventional cleaners are full of allergens, poisons and toxic chemicals. These are all problematic to store and dangerous to use. Read the instructions on any conventional cleaning product and you will see how we should use them in well ventilated rooms, not in conjunction with anything else, and avoid breathing in the fumes. This is all much easier said than done, particularly for the busy house husband or wife. Most accidental poisonings affecting American children are related to chemical cleaning products. In addition, many scientists now blame the surge in cases of childhood asthma, allergies and other respiratory problems on the chemical cocktail in the average home. Even if you are not trying to save the planet, switching to less toxic cleaners is a great way to help save your kids.

Now of course, the average Eco Friendly Cleaning Product is unlikely to be suitable for human consumption. But, the key thing is overall they give off fewer dangerous fumes and contain less toxic chemicals. Still reading the labels is a must. Simple things such as citrus extracts are often used in both green and conventional cleaning products. They cut through grease and give a wonderful perfume. But, be warned many of us are allergic to these citrus oils, so even though they are natural and obviously less dangerous than a bottle of bleach, they can still be a concern.

Avoiding Petrochemicals with Green Cleaning Products

In addition many are composed of petrochemicals. While I know not many of us wish to give up our cars just yet, using less oil is something we all need to try before it is too late. It is not just that oil is hugely polluting as both an industry and in itself, there simply is not enough of it to go around. Pretty soon we really will need to prioritize its use, and surely an oil based detergent is a whole lot less important than keeping emergency vehicles running?

Detergents are often the cause of many sensitivities and allergies to things such as laundry products. Switching to palm oil derived detergents or better still natural vegetable oil based soaps is far kinder to your skin and the environment.

So Why Make Cleaning Eco Friendly?

We should all make Cleaning Eco Friendly because it is one small thing we are all capable of achieving. Our household cleaners account for a huge volume of the pollutants our family is responsible for. Change those and we change a big part of our problematic behavior. Moving to less toxic products keeps ourselves and our families safer too. Avoiding petrochemicals is something we simply must do whenever possible as there are so many alternatives that are not finite resources.

Eco Friendly Cleaning

Admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:14:31 +0000

Making Cleaning Eco Friendly should be something we all strive for. There are so many new Green Cleaners to choose from that reducing the number of chemicals we use in the home is far from difficult. Exposure to toxic products is a real threat to the health of our homes and families and should be something to be avoided at all costs.

Simple Green Cleaning

Rushing out to buy a whole new range of cleaning products is not usually necessary though. Reducing what you already use is a good step towards greener cleaning. Simple things like using a little less laundry detergent can make a big difference to the pollutants caused by your household and it will certainly improve your budget over the longer term. Get used to using a little less of whatever you use and you will be surprised at how much you can save. Remember the manufacturers want you to keep buying more products, so it makes sense they would recommend that you use a lot, in fact far too much in many cases.

Greener Cleaning with Less Waste

Another key point is to consider your water usage too. Okay, water is not a pollutant, but its use does lead to pollutants and indeed to waste on all levels. That water streaming from your tap reaches you via chemical processing, electrical pumps, filters and so on. Use a little less to rinse your dishes and you are helping reduce all these negative points.

When you use a little less soap or detergent it means you can easily also use less water as you have less scum that needs rinsing. Its so obvious its one of those things many of us are guilty of neglecting.

Green Microfiber Cloths

I know one of the key green cleaning products I keep banging on a bout are microfiber cloths. These are something I came to only in the last few years, and I have to say I am still pretty evangelical about them. A wash cloth that lasts years and can be put in the washing machine is definitely a winner. Add to that the fact they clean an awful lot, perfectly well with only a touch of water and no products at all make them pretty near perfect for frugal green cleaning advocates like myself.

Green Clean Habits

Eco Friendly Cleaning has to be a full spectrum approach to housework. Using vast quantities of inefficient cleaning products no matter how environmentally friendly they are may be more polluting than using a little of something more conventional, followed by using less water.

Being less wasteful needs thought too. It is all too easy to get into the habit of always reaching for the same manufactured products when confronted with a spill or stain. But using some ingenuity and elbow grease can often get the job done in a much greener way. Simply rubbing in a little soft or liquid soap and leaving items to soak overnight is often just as effective as a ‘Vanish’ type stain remover. But, importantly that soap is cheaper for you and far less damaging to the environment.

Relearning old habits can take a while, and there is no need to be disappointed when you do automatically reach for the bleach, just try to reduce those times. Every time you do remember to get a little more hands on with the dirt in your home will help. You cannot expect yourself or your family to suddenly ditch old habits and become the Greenest of the Green Brigade. Small steps are the ones that work because they last, they will become the habits of your future.

Aim to for Eco Friendly Cleaning by using Simple Green Cleaning Products.

Eco Green Cleaning Products

Admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:43:14 +0000

Introducing Eco Green Cleaning Products

More and more people are trying to find an effective Green Cleaner for the entire range of cleaning jobs around the home. There are countless brands telling us that they are now the best, Safe Eco Green Cleaning Product in town. But why are we so interested in switching to a Safe Cleaning Product and is there really any point? Do we need to make cleaning Eco friendly?

I guess it depends on what kind of household cleaning product you’re thinking about switching from. I know lots of people who switch to an Eco Cleaning Product for their hand dishwashing detergent, but use conventional products for everything else. That is nearly pointless behaviour. And, sadly, it proves the point that many people jump on the ‘Eco Cleaning Product’ or ‘Green Cleaner’ bandwagon without any real thought to why they should switch. I think a bottle of ‘Ecover’ or similar green hand dishwashing detergent looks nice on the counter-top. But does switching that one product make any real difference to the pollutants in your home or the waste by-products of your home? Honest answer – not really!

It would be great if that switch to Green Cleaner for hand dishwashing was the start of a more generalised switch to Eco Cleaners. But, all too often the change stops there. We need to make all our cleaning Eco friendly!

What’s Wrong with Conventional Household Cleaning Products?

I think the best place to start is to have a look at the most common conventional cleaning products used at home. Maybe some are worse than others are. It would make sense to start with the most toxic, most polluting and most down right dangerous. Switch those to an Eco cleaning alternative product and we will have had a much bigger impact on the dangers at home and the toxic waste our households are responsible for.

To look at whether a household cleaner is ‘dangerous’ you would think you could just look at the label and see. But the cleaning business is big business so the manufacturers do not make it that simple. Sadly they are not required to list every ingredient or its volume in the finished product. But, even if they did list everything used to make a certain item it would not help most of us. Without a chemical background we cannot identify much of what goes into household cleaners anyway.

Even if we know exactly what an ingredient is, and what it does, we also need to consider what it does in conjuction with all the other ingredients in that cleaner plus any others it can come into contact with. Phew! That’s a lot of analysis.

Then there is the research about safety and toxicity of those ingredients. Much of the science is carried out by laboratories with a vested interest in the manufacturer succeeding in getting an item licensed. After all that is how the bills are paid. I doubt this is common practice but if it occurs just once we don’t know what we are cleaning our homes with. In 1983 Industrial Bio-Test, an important chemical testing laboratory was found guilty of providing falsified research that was used to support the registration of chemicals with the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In 1992 another laboratory; Craven Lakes was found guilty of the same.

This proves that chemical testing results can be skewed. I grant you two cases proved in twenty years is not proof of an endemic problem, and to be honest I doubt it is that common an occurrence. It doesn’t need to be. With nearly 70,000 chemicals already licensed for use in the US alone, most manufacturers do not need to use new ingredients in their concoctions!

The main issue I have with conventional household cleaning products is that the safety instructions take no account of how we will actually use an item.

For example, foaming oven cleaner should not be used in an enclosed space and the fumes should not be breathed in. But, most of us will be leaning into that oven to clean it. While we may have opened kitchen windows and doors we are still working very close to the toxic cleaner. There is a similar issue with bathroom cleaners, many of which should only be used in a well-ventilated space. How then do we safely clean an enclosed shower cubicle with them?

Another big issue is mixing up those chemical concoctions. Bleach mixed with acid can give rise to an extremely dangerous mix of chlorine gas. And, though we are instructed not to mix chemical cleaners I believe the chances are many people have used a limescale remover and a bleach-cleaner in their bathroom during the same cleaning stint. The problem with chemical cleaners is they promise they earth and when they don’t deliver we often throw caution to the wind and throw more chemicals on the problem.

In truth, the way we use our chemical cleaners at home is probably one of the biggest concerns with them. Glass and window cleaners for instance are relatively safe. They only tend to contain a very small amount of harmful ammonia. But, we spritz those cleaners and get up real close, breathing in that fine mist allowing ammonia onto our lungs. It is not ideal is it?

My approach to making the switch from conventional to Eco cleaning products is to prioritise. Before worrying about switching to Ecover hand dishwashing detergent I wanted to switch all those household cleaners I found to be:

Toxic to my home and family.
Toxic and polluting to the environment.
Irritating to my home and family.

So I listed all those cleaners that have fumes that irritate my throat or nose when using them. Then, cleaners with dangerous ingredients, including possibly fatal poisons. Then I looked at the polluting waste that came from my house as a result of using a product. Did it mean our wastewater was impossible to treat? Would our trash contain chemicals likely to pollute groundwater etc?

It is a tough job to research, and a lot of the conclusions are very personal. Circumstances dictate what kind of toxicity you deem dangerous. I think anything which could be fatal if found my small children is a no-no, but that’s just my personal choice.

I did not make a switch overnight, but changed one product as it ran out. This gave me time to find a green cleaner whether bought or homemade, with which to replace my conventional cleaner. Gradually I am making my cleaning Eco friendly, but it really does take time!

I have slowly switched to what I consider to be safe cleaners around the home. But, I am a realist. There is absolutely no point in simply swapping all your conventional cleaners for an environmentally friendly alternatives. For a start, you won’t find replacements for everything. If you use drain cleaner, for instance, you will not find a green alternative that dissolves all that muck in quite the same way.

To move away from chemical household cleaners and make cleaning Eco friendly, requires a change in expectations and attitudes too.

Green Cleaning will require some activity on your part! Chemical cleaners have promised an ever-decreasing role for us in the actual cleaning process. Just squirt it on, leave, and then rinse off. It takes strong chemicals to dissolve dirt and grease without any mechanical action. If you want to clean with a green cleaner expect to at least do some rubbing!

That is not to say green cleaners are not good at cleaning, it is just they are often not the miracle workers we have come to expect! We have to start taking part in the process of cleaning our homes!

I also think moving away from chemical cleaners should go hand in hand with less reliance on anti-bacterial promises! Children suffer from more allergies than ever before. It is my belief that a large factor in these allergies is an unnaturally weak immune system because children encounter fewer safe microbes around their home than ever before. Not all those bacteria are dangerous! And, no matter how often you spray an antibacterial cleaner, you will not irradicate them, you only spread more allergy causing chemical particles to float around your home!

Rather than rely on some magic potion we need to take responsibility and return to proper hygiene around the home. Highlight those areas where dangerous bacteria may be of concern and start cleaning them properly, regularly. The main culprits will be chopping boards and hands. But you don’t need to spray anti-bacterials all over them. Warm soapy washes for hands, in running water and hot soapy or salty washes for cutting boards please!

I hope this site will be of interest to those of you considering a switch to more environmentally friendly safe cleaners. Whether those Eco Green Cleaning Products are homemade or bought commercially is a matter of preference. We will talk about the two. Whether you want to ditch all your old cleaners or just a few of the particularly nasty ones this site should help you find the ideal green cleaning product to make your cleaning Eco friendly.