Support Green is the New Pink

7.08.2007

Are Your Cleaning Supplies Making Your House Toxic?


Welcome to Part 1 of our 2-part Green Summer Cleaning Series by our guest author Sandra Sanchez! Here goes....

I was thinking about myself the other day (surprise, surprise) and I realized that while I have been making a tremendous effort to help mother nature and our environment (thanks, Green Is The New Pink) I haven’t been thinking about how some of my habits affect my immediate environment – and by that I mean my really cute apartment.

As a self-proclaimed neat freak, I use my fair share of cleaning products and am always buying the latest and greatest in scrub-free-soap-scum-remover or whatever the product du jour may be. However, I always got a headache after my cleaning sprees and I had to open all my apartment windows to eliminate the toxic fumes left behind. This revelation has prompted me to search for a better way to clean. Turns out every spritz of my window cleaner is causing harm to myself, my pets and our Earth!

Did You Know?

Most mainstream cleaning products contain chlorine, dyes, and perfume, which pollute during the manufacturing process and during and after use. Just think, that bleach that runs down your drain has to go somewhere, right? Also a lot of mainstream cleaners are major causes of the depletion of non-renewable resources such as petroleum.

Let’s look at some of the facts:

-If every US household replaced just one 32 oz. bottle of shower cleaner containing chlorine bleach, with hydrogen-peroxide based shower cleaner, we could prevent 1 million lbs. of chlorine from entering our environment. SeventhGeneration.com

-If every home in the US replaced just one 25 oz. of petroleum-based dishwashing liquid with plant-based product we could save 81,000 barrels of oil – enough to heat and cool 4,600 U.S. homes for a year. SeventhGeneration.com

-If every household in the US replaced just one box of 48 oz. petroleum-based powder laundry detergent with vegetable based product, we could save 96,000 barrels of oil – enough to heat and cool 5,500 U.S. homes for a year. SeventhGeneration.com

-17,000: the number of petrochemicals available for home use, only 30% of which have been tested for exposure to human health and the environment. treehuger.com

-100: the number of times higher that indoor air pollution levels can be above outdoor air pollution levels, according to US EPA estimates. treehugger.com

Eco friendly Cleaning Supplies:

But where do you find these chlorine-free, non-petroleum-based cleaners. Actually, just about everywhere. They're available online and at Whole Foods, Target and Restoration Hardware(just to name a few.)

www.seventhgen.com/

www.ecover.com/

www.bonami.com/

www.mrsmeyers.com/

www.vermontsoap.com/

www.fruits-passion.com/

www.bee.net.nz/ (my favorite packaging!)


I just want to hire someone else to clean my house...


And for those of you that are ultra-busy (or ultra-lazy, shhhh I won’t tell) green housekeeping is the newest trend in saving the earth. These companies pride themselves in using all-natural, nontoxic cleaning supplies, and you can find one in your area by checking your local listings.

Los Angeleswww.greencleanla.com

New York Citywww.zenhomecleaning.com, www.greencleannyc.com,

San Franciscowww.greenwaymaid.com

Washington, DC - www.greencleanusa.org

Nationwide - www.greencleancertified.com

So whether you do it yourself or not, the bottom line is that green cleaning products are better for you and the earth....Check out next week's post where Sandra tells us some all-natural cleaning methods using ingredients in your own house....


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. This Sandra girl sure seems really intelligent, down to earth, beautiful and kind!

Anonymous said...

I would suggest avoiding Green Clean LA, the cleaning company referenced above! To make a long story short, they arrived to my house over an hour late, did a mediocre job cleaning, and broke a vase in the process. They also took hours longer than they had quoted, so the final bill was almost twice the original estimate. Finally, their customer service did not come close to fixing the situation. I'd suggest avoiding this company and looking for an earth-friendly alternative!

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