More and more people are trying to find an effective green cleaning alternative 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 dish washing soap, but use conventional products for everything else. That is nearly pointless behavior. And, sadly, it proves the point that many people jump on the ‘Eco Cleaning Product’ or ‘Green Cleaner’ bandwagon without any real thought as to why they should switch. I think a bottle of ‘Ecover’ or similar green hand washing 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! (But it’s a good start!)
It would be great if that switch to a green cleaner for hand washing was the start of a more generalized switch to full home eco cleaners. But, all too often, the change stops there. We need to make ALL of 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. It would make sense to start with the most toxic, most polluting and most down right dangerous. Switch those to an eco-friendly cleaning alternative product in those areas will have a much bigger impact on 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 conjunction 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 2 cases in 20 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 U.S. alone, most manufacturers do not need to use new ingredients in their concoctions!
Safety Concerns
The main issue I have with conventional household cleaning products is that the safety instructions usually take no account of how we will actually use an item.
Ventilation
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. But well-ventilated isn’t usually defined.
How then do we safely clean an enclosed shower cubicle with them, for example?
While this is not official, professional advice:
- If possible, open a window.
- Limit time in the enclosed space.
- Bring in one or more fans(s). Make sure the fan blows air from a fresher air source in your direction.
Dangerous Mixtures
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 work 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’s not ideal is it?
Making the Switch
My approach to making the switch from conventional to eco-friendly cleaning products is to prioritize. Before worrying about switching to Ecover hand washing 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 make 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 by my small children is a no-go, 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, 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, it requires a change in expectations and attitudes too.
Putting in the Work
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 throw in some elbow grease!
That is not to say green cleaners are not good at cleaning, it’s just that they are often not the miracle workers we’ve 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 antibacterial 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 eradicate them. You only spread more allergy-causing chemical particles around your home!
Rather than relying on some chemical cleaner, 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 and regularly. The main culprits will be chopping boards and hands. But you don’t need to spray anti-bacterial cleaners all over them. Warm soapy washes for hands in running water and hot soapy or salty washes for cutting boards please!
The Light Green Approach to Eco Friendly Cleaning
The disadvantages of simply switching all your current chemical cleaners to a green cleaning brand are that firstly it will cost you, and secondly often the eco credentials of such green brands can be a bit misleading. That is not to say that switching all your current favorites to a greener brand is pointless. Even if your new products are less than perfect, they will be better than old-fashioned chemical cleaners. But, whether ‘a little greener’ is good enough is a very personal decision.
We are not here to judge and personally believe every little bit of greener living helps. But, that shouldn’t make you feel completely wholesome and carbon neutral just because you have chosen a greener cleaner in this weeks trip to the grocery store. Be happy you have improved your impact on the environment, but do know there is of course more you could do.
Lifestyle, family commitments, budget and time constraints all have their part to play in determining just how environmentally friendly each of us is. I am far from perfect, but sometimes greener than others and always aware that I could try harder.
It is great to be doing something, just do not get to complacent or indeed judgmental about what others do. Remember, all those lovely green cleaning products you buy also have an impact on the planet. They are sold to you in abundant packaging (often plastic) and driven all over the country before you get to use them. You drive to the store to pick them up and half of what is in most of those lovely green bottles is just water.
If you do nothing else, ALWAYS choose the most concentrated formula you can. This is one of the greenest things you can do, in many aspects of your families groceries. More product in each bottle equals more time between purchases, less packaging to try and recycle and less fuel used to get the green cleaner to your home. But, do not forget to use significantly less of these green concentrated cleaners or you put all your good efforts to waste!
Another key to improving the light green approach to Eco Friendly Cleaning is to buy fewer products. Consolidate your green cleaners. There are simply not that many jobs that really require just one specific cleaning product to achieve. You should be able to make more space in your cupboards and in your store trolley by choosing multipurpose products rather than task specific ones. Remember the dirt in your home does not alter radically depending on which room you are in, so why on earth are you buying so many different types of green cleaning product.
All that being said, choosing the light green approach to make Cleaning Eco Friendly is still a good thing. You can still feel good that you have improved your family’s negative impact on the planet and really every single improvement is hugely important. If every family just made their approach to the chores that little bit greener think how much less pollution there would be in our waste water, or how fewer children would be exposed to harmful chemical cleaners?
The Dark Green Approach to Eco Friendly Cleaning
But, for many this simply isn’t good enough. For them, removing every artificial chemical that is harmful is key. But to achieve this goal of perfectly Green Cleaning is far harder to accomplish. The thing is where do you stop. You may have found the most environmentally friendly cleaning range on the high street, but can you afford it and do you agree with the packaging, the labor used to produce it, the distance it was transported after manufacture? The list of questions to ask yourself if you are really trying to be a Dark Green Greenie are simply endless. And, worse still, not all the answers are that forthcoming. That is why I believe the really environmentally conscious homeowner will be looking to change their cleaning habits in a far more radical way.
Purely swapping to a different brand is not the end of the issue. To make cleaning dark green involves some of the following ideas:
- Consolidating cleaning products
- Homemade remedies
- Dual purpose items such as cleaning with vinegar, scouring with salt and baking soda
- Buying concentrated formulas
- Using less water
- Using nothing but water and microfiber cloths
- Short cool cycles for the laundry
- Laundry balls
- All natural cleaners such as soap nuts
- Avoiding anything derived from the petrochemical industry
- Avoiding all plastics and packaging that cannot be readily recycled
- Choosing only 100% biodegradable cleaning products
- Trying to buy locally produced products
- Relying on more elbow grease than miracle cleaner
In short being really Eco Friendly about your cleaning takes guts and determination!
The dark green approach to Eco Friendly Cleaning does not stop here, but you can see it is a much more serious business. In truth it just is not practical to expect us all to be creating homemade soaps or hand-washing diapers. But simply considering the things on the list can provoke thought and improvement in the way we do deal with the household chores. Rather than feel we simply can never be green enough it is far better to see the list of truly green cleaning ideas as something we may be able to incorporate at least in part into our day to day work. An improvement here and there is an improvement for all of us after all!
Final Thoughts
I hope this piece will be of interest to those of you considering a switch to more environmentally friendly safe cleaners. Whether those eco-friendly cleaning products are homemade or bought commercially is a matter of preference. Whether you want to ditch all your old cleaners or just a few of the particularly nasty ones, hopefully this article helped you find the ideal balance for you to make your cleaning eco-friendly.
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