About Green House-Cleaning Products
Keeping the house clean doesn't have to be destructive to the environment. Though there was a time when anyone seeking to clean his home in an environmentally friendly way had to mix his own house-cleaning products, green cleaning products are now available on supermarket shelves. Many of popular brands are expanding into the green cleaning market, making it easier than ever to go green. Does this Spark an idea?
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History
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Green cleaning saw its first consideration in the 1960s when a book by Rachel Carson, "Silent Spring," told of the dangers of pesticides for humans and animals. While this was green cleaning's start, the movement didn't take hold until former president Bill Clinton's 1992 executive order 13101. According to CleanLink, Clinton's executive order instructed staff for more than 100,00 federally-owned buildings to begin using green cleaning supplies. The order also gave green cleaning it's first real definition as "the use of products and services that reduce the health and environmental impacts compared to similar products and services used for the same purpose."
Significance
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Early cleaning products were filled with petroleum and phosphates. Traditional cleaning products are harmful to both the home's inhabitants and the environment. Washed away down sinks, toilets and tubs, traditional cleaning products are absorbed into soil and poison the planet. Green cleaning products are products that do an equally good job scrubbing the tub, but they wash away clean and leave no toxic residues behind.
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Store-Bought Products
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As green cleaning becomes both more popular and understood, products claiming to be green cleaning products have begun flooding the consumer market. These products must meet two real requirements to be considered green. They must be biodegradable and they must be effective.
In 2008, well-known brand Clorox began making green cleaning products widely available to environmentally conscious consumers with its GreenWorks product line. Other, lesser known brands, such as Seventh Generation and Ecover, make green cleaning products primarily available through online retailer outlets.
Homemade Products
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Though homemade green cleaning requires more knowledge and effort than tossing a bottle of environmentally friendly cleaner into a shopping cart, it has its advantages. Homemade green cleaning uses everyday products such as baking soda, vinegar, borax and natural soap, washing soda, lemon, and corn starch to achieve a clean home with less chemical fuss than bottled cleaning products. Not only do using these products mean making use of something likely already in the cupboard, it also means not purchasing more bottles than are necessary. Even green cleaning products come on plastic bottles, and while those bottles are recyclable, many of them will end up in landfills.
Professional Cleaning
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Green cleaning has been a part of the commercial cleaning industry since the early 1990s, and green janitorial products are as available as consumer cleaning products, on supermarkets shelves, and through professional and online retailers.
As homeowners seek to do their part, the green cleaning market has begun to affect small-scale cleaning outfits, and more small-scale professional cleaning services are advertising as green cleaners to attract environmentally conscious clientele.
Outside the Bottle
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Green cleaning products are about more than the chemical or non-chemical cleansers used to fight germs and soap scum around the house. Those seeking to go green should think about the products they're using in conjunction with those cleansers. Plastic bottles and paper towels are major offenders, and replacing them when possible with reusable products makes green cleaning more effective. Mix homemade cleaners in reusable plastic spray bottles or purchase refills, rather than brand-new bottles of store-bought products. Replace paper towels with sponges and cotton clothes that can be washed and reused.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit ecology image by petar Ishmeriev from Fotolia.com
