Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products

Natural ingredients support environmentally-friendly cleaning

Few products typify American consumerism as well as household cleaners. Manufacturers and marketers have transformed a humdrum collection of products into an $18 billion market of modern-day household aids.

Synthetic cleaning agents, bleaches, enzymes and optical brighteners have produced a generation of products that work under varied conditions: against more forms of dirt, in colder water, and with less time and effort than ever before. However, in our attempts to get our clothes whiter than white and homes cleaner than clean, we’ve accepted a plethora of chemicals whose presence in our homes raises very serious health and environmental concerns.

The average American uses approximately 40 pounds of toxic household cleaning products each year. These cleaning products contain dangerous ingredients, including neurotoxins, carcinogens, allergens, central nervous system depressants, heavy metals and other agents that cause or contribute to cancer, respiratory problems, reproductive abnormalities, allergic reactions and behavioral problems, among other issues. Ingredients from household cleaning products make their way into the environment through various routes. They are flushed down toilets, poured down sinks, sprayed into the air, thrown into the trash and dumped onto the ground. In fact, many hazardous cleaning products are disposed of in landfills or incinerated, where they release their toxins into the environment and contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer, pollute groundwater and contaminate the soil, while possibly causing significant and irreparable harm to animals, plants, drinking water and food supplies. Natural cleaning products offer environmentally sound, cost-efficient alternatives to the toxic and potentially lethal household cleaning products used in many homes today.

A number of companies have developed product lines to combat the use of chemical-laden products and offer consumers a real choice. One of the original innovators was Seventh Generation, which started operations in 1988 when it took over a catalog operation from a company in Vermont, growing the business via mail order and outreach into natural foods stores and coops. In 1995, it sold the catalog business to Gaiam, and focused exclusively on expanding the availability of safer, more eco-friendly household products and cleansers.

Today, the company uses renewable, non-toxic, phosphate free and biodegradable ingredients as much combination of lemongrass and lime; and a mixture of sage and citrus that can help boost the spirits and balance the nerves. The company uses cosmetic grade essential oils to custom create fragrances for its products.

Information on the company noted it developed the Howard Naturals line in response to consumer demand. President Kevin A. Howard, stated: “We turned to the natural products industry to find the most innovative vegetable-derived ingredients so we could develop the very best natural cleaning products possible, without using any petroleum distillates, ammonia, bleach, silicone oils or other chemicals.”

There are further options in the cleaning arena. ChemFree Solutions, for example, uses plant -derived enzymes blended with all -natural ingredients to speci f ically target cleaning challenges. The enzymes are biodegradable and, when degraded, can be readily absorbed back into nature. ChemFree Solutions’ kitchen formula is a vegetable-based enzyme cleaner that rapidly biodegrades fats, oils, grease and grime, working to remove not just bacteria but deeper stains or grime.

Whether they’ve been listening to Al Gore or just learning about the importance of green living from their children, a growing number of consumers are looking for more natural options in the household cleaning arena. However, retailers have a tough task to convince them that the efficacy is there, compared to past incarnations that may have been “green” but lacked power. By working closely with distributors and marketers, retailers have the opportunity to deliver samples for testing, and the education that can turn a looker into a long-term user.

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