![]() Instead, Moram suggests focusing on reading ingredient labels to see what products do contain. "They might replace it with something that's equally as bad, but it's not an ingredient that people look for," Moram explains. "You don't have to throw out everything in your house to live sustainably," she says.Ĭompanies will often advertise certain ingredients that aren't in their products, without providing more information. ![]() Practicing green cleaning isn't zero-sum, says Moram. Now, she makes her own cleaning products, practices zero-waste living and researches brands to make sure they're both sustainable and ethical before making a purchase. When she first started thinking about environmentally-friendly cleaning and living, Moram was just curious about the products she was using, and their impact on her family's health and the environment. "There has to be a better way to clean our homes and not have to worry about what we are spraying ," says Stephanie Moram, who runs the website Good Girl Gone Green and hosts the podcast Green Junkie. ![]() We have to clean ourselves, our clothes, our dishes, our homes – and for each of these tasks, there are countless products filled with ingredients with names so long and complicated, we have no idea what they are. Swedish dishcloths, reusable cloths, detergent sheets, hand soap tablets and reusable bottles for mixing your own solutions are good building blocks for a green cleaning routine.Ĭleaning is a fundamental part of life. If a manufacturer isn't specific about what makes its product a smart environmental choice, we consider its claims to be greenwashing and won't recommend it.Swapping out some basic supplies can help you explore eco-friendly cleaning. Broad, unsubstantiated claims like "earth-friendly" or "all natural" are frowned upon by the FTC and by Good Housekeeping. Keep in mind when you are shopping that the most responsible green cleaners clearly identify on the label what makes them green and exactly what environmental benefits they provide. We also verify any environmental claims the brand makes. For example, we test each product with the same 60 laundry stains or hand-wash the same 45 dirty dishes to make sure whatever we recommend cleans well, is easy to use and is labeled responsibly. When we test eco-friendly cleaning products in the GH Cleaning Lab, we evaluate them just as we do any other traditional laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid, or multi-purpose cleaner. You can expect eco-friendly cleaning supplies and tools to tout benefits like biodegradable formulas, ingredients sourced from renewable plants instead of non-renewable petroleum, refillable containers, and packaging made from higher percentages of recycled plastic or no plastic at all. As consumers have become more concerned about the ingredients found in regular cleaning products and opt to make their own homemade cleaners or purchase those with plant-based formulas, manufacturers have been hard at work finding new, effective yet sustainable alternative ingredients - meaning the performance of eco-responsible cleaning products is absolutely improving. One of the most frequently asked questions by visitors to the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab is "Do green cleaning products really work?" Happily, we can now answer that yes they do, though this wasn't always the case.
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