Green housekeeping methods and cleaning products are components of maintaining a green lifestyle. However, did you know that no standards exist for labeling a cleaning product as green? Or that there are no requirements for disclosing all product ingredients? And that unlike food products, the order of ingredients listed doesn't necessarily represent relative amounts?
"Greenwashing" is the practice of making green claims without verifiable positive effect on the environment.
Avoid cleaning products with vague, generic descriptions that leave room for interpretation. For example:
- "Natural" - May actually include petroleum, toxic, and synthetic substances as some naturally occurring substances are highly toxic.
- "Safe" - Does this mean it's safe for the environment and human health?
- "Biodegradable" - Is it the product or the package or both that will break down naturally? How long will this take?
- "Eco-friendly" - Does this mean it's made from plants? Or that it's recyclable or has less packaging?
Without formal standardization, these organizations are taking matters into their own hands and certifying cleaning and other products claiming to be green:
- Green Seal www.greenseal.org Certifies and tests products.
- EPA- Design for the Environment - www.epa.gov/dfe Recognizes companies that commit to the use of safer ingredients.
Personally, I don't want to find out that something I was doing to save the environment and be eco-conscious has actually had the opposite effect. I'm taking a closer look at my choices for household cleaning products.
Jordana G. says:
I noticed this yesterday in Walgreens. So many of the products were calling themselves green. I looked in particular at a Clorox product (can't remember which one)... and read the ingredients and didn't see why this cleaning product was even part of Clorox's green line.
Becca S. says:
There are also so-called inert ingredients in products. These incredients are not chemically, biologicially, or toxicologically inert. The public is simply kept inert/ lacking the power to move or act or learn what the products may contain. They are secret ingredients, which may be more toxic than what the manufacturer has deteremined to be the active ingredient on the label.
With regard to the greening of products: I bought what I was hoping was an organic pet food. While the product claimed to be organic, I recalled after the fact, that there were no regulations on pet food. My dog, before she died, bled internally from the organic pet food, and my vet urged me to take her off immediately and trash the rest in a landfill.
The reason I had bought this in the first place was that I knew that nearly all pets foods had incredients which were genetically modified organisms which were shot into the DNA of seeds to make the seeds tolerate more herbicide spraying. Of the two most commonly used herbicides for soy and corn, one causes circulatory problems and cardiovascular disease in dogs, while the other damages the immune system of every animal tested. Nearly all, if not all by now, pet foods contain genetically engineered DNA which is patented by the biotech/herbicide industries to tolerate more herbicide spraying. Contrary to the propaganda, the herbicide tolerant crop is not safe, does not reduce pesticide use --in fact, it increases it. It does not protect the environment but runs off into both surface and groundwaters, the latter is from where most bottled waters are tapped.
The biotech-pesticide companies plan to own all DNA on the planet, and if we allow them to do this, it may will be the end of life as we know it. So much for the greening of products.
Becca S. says:
I clean my floors with either Shaklee Basic H2 'Organic' Super-cleaning concentrate, which does not appear to be toxic. Less than a teaspoon will mix with a half gallon of water and clean an entire house, including the floors. I alternate with plain, food grade white vinegar and water and use it wherever I wish to kill bacteria.
After being chemically poisoned first with an insecticidal fogger, and a decade later with a chemical floor stripper, I avoid petrochemicals, including fragrances, which are made from volatile organic compounds, include mixed xylene isomers --the chemical to which I was accidentally exposed in the first place. Xylenes are used in herbicides (kills weeds), insecticides (kills insects and mosquitoes) and funguscides (kills fungi). They are also in adhesives for plastic tape, plastics, cleaning solvents, paints, and myriad of other products. You can learn more about the health damaging effects of the chemical by searching at TOXNET, at the National Library of Medicine.
Eric Lancaster says:
Earlier this year I got a line of commercial cleaning products I invented certified by California Certified Organic Farmers, making them the only Certified Organic commercial cleaning products on the market in the world. The products contained only certified organic and OMRI Listed ingredients that were all food grade. Every ingredient was plant based and used in making foods. Since everyone was going green, it seemed like the ideal thing to do.
I have gone through the EcoLogo and Green Seal regulations and don't think they offer a great deal of peace of mind as they do allow for certain ingredients that are not necessary for cleaning products and ones that are not the safest options available. Therefore, I decided not to go through their certification processes, which cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 per label, a pretty steep sum for a start up!
Unfortunately, I couldn't get any companies to commit to purchasing the products because their programs required Green Seal or EcoLogo Certifications in order to comply with their green programs and had to shut down the company. Other companies I still find it hard to believe that company would rather "go green" than "go organic".
There is a lot to learn about labeling and the antics that go on in the wording of them. Use the approach that you have to be able to pronounce the ingredient name and know exactly what it is. Afterall an "anionic and cationic plant based surfactant", "coconut-based surfactant", and "Sodium Lauryl Sulfate" are the same thing, so companies playing this game should stop it and fess up.
Avoid any product that lists: Fragrance instead of a natural scent like essential oil.
Read the cautions on the labels. These will give you clues about how safe the product is.
If it bubbles a lot, it has SLS or some other type of surfactant.
What is it? You should have the right to know.
Elli A. says:
My rule of thumb is that anything that is not externally certified is ignored. I saw “natural” on food products that look like edible plastic. Artificial colors and flavors and heavily modified and hydrogenated ingredients can still be called natural, its all up to the manufacturers.
The problem with cleaning products is that its hard to understand the labels. Food products are much easier, you can read the ingredients and recognize almost all of them. When it comes to chemicals, go figure. Greenwashing party.
Agree with Eric, we have the right to know. I hope your new company works better Eric.