what's eco-friendly?

Do you want to clean green?

There's a great article in the July/August 2007 issue of Natural Home magazine. It's called "How Do I Know I'm Buying Green?" and should be required reading for anyone interested in sustainable living and negotiating the current retail/business "greenwashing" of products and services.

A sidebar to the article discusses the life cycle of concrete, but the points made could be applied to any product.

The truth is, there are probably no perfect products or materials. Everything has positive and negative environmental aspects. Ask yourself some basic questions, and weigh the pros and cons before making a personal choice.

1. Where does the material come from? If it's a naturally-occurring material, that's good. If it's a renewable resource, even better.


2. What are the byproducts of its manufacture? Vinyl is made from petroleum, which is a naturally-occurring resource, but not renewable. Its manufacture, however, puts it squarely on the negative side, since it releases toxins into the environment.


3. How is it delivered and/or installed? If a product has to be shipped thousands of miles from its source to be manufactured or used, that's not as good as something which is locally available.


4. How is the product maintained, operated or used? If it doesn't outgas toxins or pollute the environment, that's good. If it lasts a long time, that's also good.


5. How healthy is it? If it doesn't create health problems in humans, animals, or eco-systems, that's good.


6. What do we do with it when we're done with it? If it can be reused or recycled, all the better. If its disposal doesn't pollute the environment, bonus.

Take baking soda as an example. Baking soda is commonly recommended as a great eco-friendly cleanser - it's a good abrasive, and has a myriad of other household uses.

Baking soda is made from soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate. To make baking soda, the soda ash is mined in the form of an ore called trona. The soda ash is then dissolved into a solution through which carbon dioxide is bubbled, and sodium bicarbonate precipitates out, forming baking soda. (For a more detailed explanation of the source and manufacture of baking soda, read this online article.)

So baking soda comes from a natural source, albeit a non-renewable one. (But the article I cite above indicates that the trona deposits in Wyoming are large enough to supply the world with baking soda for thousands of years.)

The trona ore is mined from extensive tunnels, so it's not as damaging as strip mining. There are two processes for precipitating the sodium bicarbonate, one of which is more toxic than the other. So sometimes the manufacture of baking soda is less than eco-friendly.

Baking soda has to be shipped from Wyoming to wherever it is used, so it's not locally available in most of the world.

Baking soda is used in powdered form or dissolved in water. It is non-toxic to humans (as long as it's not consumed in huge doses), and its crystals are non-irritating either as a powder or solution. (In fact we regularly eat baking soda in baked goods, and it's even recommended as a treatment for mild skin irritations.)

Baking soda is generally not recycled, but allowed to be washed away into sewage systems, and from there possibly into natural waterways. In large amounts, it is conceivable that it could adversely salinate (i.e. make salty) water systems and disrupt ecosystems.

So what's the verdict? Yes, baking soda comes from a non-renewable, non-recyclable resource. It is energy-intensive in its manufacture and transport. But its manifold household uses in the face of much more toxic commercial alternatives still make it a preferable alternative.

So there you go. Use your head. Ask questions. Seek better solutions. And at the end of the day, be content with the best that you can do under the circumstances.

my journey in eco-friendly cleaning

Do you want to clean green?

About twenty years ago I first became aware of the "green" movement as it grew popular in the media. I was young (twenty) and cared about my planet. I became interested in sustainable living, and over the course of several years I did a lot of reading and a lot of experimenting on my own - with everything from diet to cleaning, reducing, reusing and recycling, and consumer practices.

In that time I found some great resources that have become my "bibles" for sustainable living and eco-friendly cleaning. I've listed some of them below.

Debra Lynn Dadd is one of my all-time favorite eco-friendly authors. I read a book of hers called Non-toxic, Natural, and Earthwise which changed the way I looked at consumer products. I believe it's now out of print, but it's worth getting used if you can find it. She explains the hazards and alternatives for all sorts of household products, breaking them down by the categories "natural," (i.e. found in nature) "non-toxic," (i.e. not hazardous to human health) and "earthwise" (i.e. sustainable in their manufacture or use).

Dadd has revised and updated her most recent book, Home Safe Home, which also explains the hazards of and healthy alternatives for household products. I highly recommend it as well.

Dadd used to write a column for the magazine Natural Home, which is a great resource if you're interested in greening your home. I've subscribed to it for several years, and keep all my back issues. The magazine offers articles and news tips on topics that include green renovation and home building, eco-friendly cleaning, green gardening and green decorating.

My other favorite book on eco-friendly cleaning is Annie Berthold-Bond's Clean and Green. Her book is full of wonderful recipes for eco-friendly home cleansers, and I still use some of her favorites in my own cleaning.

I started using eco-friendly products because I was concerned about the health and environmental effects of modern commercial cleansers. I would use a popular spray tub-and-tile cleanser and wonder why my breathing felt so congested afterwards. The strong perfumes and odours of many commercial cleansers left me with migraine headaches, nausea and dizziness. I got contact dermatitis from using commercial cleansers without gloves.

When I first started eco-friendly cleaning in my own home, I was pretty clueless. I read that borax was a good cleanser, so I'd sprinkle some on a sponge and try and scrub a toilet with it. After a lot of trial and error I realized that some eco-friendly cleansers work better than others, and many of them don't act at all like the modern commercial cleansers we consumers are used to.

When I started my cleaning business there was never any doubt that I would use eco-friendly cleaning techniques and products. I was exposed to the cleansers eight hours a day, five days a week, and I refused to do anything that I feared might endanger my health. The few times I gave in and used a product that a client preferred, I always regretted it. In the end I used eco-friendlier products and techniques exclusively, and was much happier for it.

Switching from regular commercial cleansers to eco-friendlier alternatives can seem like a daunting task, which is why I've created this blog. I want to encourage people to try different things, and see how much better they feel afterwards. Like me, I'm sure you'll never want to go back.