Here at Tree Hugging Family, I mainly advocate making your own homemade green cleaners. Not only is it easy to make simple green cleaners, but very cost effective. That said, there will always be folks who want to buy, not make cleaners, so I figured we should take a look at which store bought cleaners are actually green.

The number one rule for choosing a green store bought cleaner is – read your labels. A pretty waterfall or little green leaf means nothing. Ignore fancy ‘green’ packaging and read your labels.

Terms you want to see on a cleaning bottle include:

• Ammonia free
• Chlorine free
• Plant based
• Biodegradable
• Certified organic
• Solvent free
• Phosphate free
• Chemical free
• Fragrance free
• Dye and artificial color free

Of course, one cleaner may note that it’s got certified organic ingredients or that it’s fragrance free, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. You need to read the whole label, not simply go by the first thing you see.

Terms you DO NOT want to see on a cleaning bottle include:

• “Poison” or “Danger.” Federal law mandates that these terms indicate the highest possible level of hazard.
• “Caution” or “Warning,” both mean a product carries a moderate hazard.
• “Wear gloves” – “Only use in a well ventilated area” and other likewise terms are big baddies. I’m sorry, but if you need to wear gloves or a face mask in order to handle a product, right there it’s a bad idea.

Next check for full ingredient disclosure: If a product says something like, “Natural ingredients” or has a super scanty ingredient list, I’d be leery. They could do better. Some products may be just fine, and list their healthy ingredients at their website, but they should include them on the package.

Lastly check the packaging:

• Is it excessive?
• Is it recyclable?
• Is it refillable? Some co-ops do offer refillable cleaning products.

Is it worth it?

All in all, this is a lot of work just to find a green cleaner. You could just make most of your own. If you need help making homemade green cleaners (or help choosing a green conventional cleaner) read the following:

Basic green cleaning

• 25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies
• Hot Water for Cleaning – Yeah It Works
• Breathe In Some Green Air
• Homemade Organic Liquid Handsoap
• Are Sponges A Great Green Choice?

Nice scents

• Homemade Spicy Apple Air Freshener
• Natural Air Fresheners
• Pennyroyal, Cinnamon, & Lavender Air Freshener

Laundry

• Solar Stain Fighting
• Green Product Review: Biokleen All Temperature Laundry Liquid

Dishes

• Green Product Review: Biokleen Automatic Dish Powder
• Green Product Review: Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwasher Gel
• Seventh Generation Dishwasher Powder Review

Which cleaners do you buy vs. make?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Test washes completed: At least eight or ten; we’ve been using it a few weeks.

Cost: About $9-10.00 at my local grocery store, for 32 oz., which is 64 loads, but I’m betting it comes out to more loads then that. Also, I found it at Drugstore.com for a great deal, just $6.59. That’s an outstanding price considering the amount you get.

Website: Again, remember that before I mentioned how Biokleen has a lame website. I still dislike their website. Here’s what I said before (and it still stands).

I’m very disappointed in the Biokleen website.

First off, their site map page is busted. Click on “Company Overview” or “Our Promise” and nothing? Also, it’s hard to find their ingredient info, in fact, I never found it, I had to pull ingredients from the actual bottle of detergent, which did not thrill me. I shouldn’t have to work so hard to look up ingredients – they should tell me about them at the site.

They also have zero pages dedicated to recycling or packaging; which in my opinion is shoddy for an eco-friendly company.

Stats:

• 3x More Concentrated
• Phosphate & Chlorine Free
• Vegan.
• No artificial fragrance, colors, or preservatives.
• No negative effects on rivers, streams, plants, or wildlife.
• Kind to those with chemical sensitivities and allergies
• biodegrades and Ozone safe.
• Not tested on animals
• New & Improved Formula home
• Removes tough stains, including coffee and tea
• Safe for high-efficiency dishwashers

Ingredients: Oxygen Bleach (Natural Sodium Percarbonate), Vegetable Fiber, Anti-Corrosive Agents (Natural), Grapefruit Seed, Pulp Extract, Soda Ash, Sodium Citrate, Readily Biodegradable Nonionic Surfactants. Contains no phosphate, chlorine, ammonia, petroleum, solvents, alcohol, butyl, ether, SLS or SLES, EDTA, DEA. No SARA title III, CA 65, or EPA priority pollutants. No materials listed by the ACGIH as hazardous.

Packaging: The container is plastic and recyclable but I don’t think the lid is. I can’t tell. After searching their site forever, (which frankly started to make me mad – I’ve had a bad day) I decided to call them. Turns out they’re closed. The good news; Bi-O-Kleen Industries, Inc. is actually right near where I live, so I’ll call them again to find out about the lids, and also maybe stop by to chat with them about their website. Hopefully more to come. There is no boxed powder available.
Review – i.e. what I think:

I followed the directions; which you can read here, and the first wash left a little white residue. The next time I washed I used a little less than 1/2 Tbs per soap cup (I have two). If I use under 1 Tbs per load, I don’t get any white residue. I ran two incredibly dirty loads of dishes and those loads came out clean looking, but a little sticky. The other loads I rinsed the dishes before hand quickly, like I normally do after we eat, before washing them. All of those came out clean and not sticky.

In my dishwasher, on my dishes, I felt like this powder worked much better than the Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwasher Gel and also better than the Seventh Generation Dishwasher Powder. The Biokleen powder seems less iffy. The Seventh Generation products work, but I didn’t love them because once in a while something came out sketchy. Also, while I’m not the type to check for spots, I haven’t noticed any with the Biokleen powder, and I did notice some with the Seventh Gen powder.

Bottom line: If you use the Biokleen Automatic Dish Powder you need to be willing to rinse your dishes before hand. I do this anyhow, dishwashers always note that they’re aren’t meant to clean totally gross dishes, so it’s no big deal to me. I think my dishes are perfectly clean using this powder. It’s got a nice light scent, like all their products. A huge perk is that one container will last forever. You get a ton of earth-friendly loads for a great price. I’ll buy this product again.

Total score:

Three out of five happy trees because it works well. They lose two for their lame ongoing website issues, and because they don’t offer a boxed powder; a cardboard box would be easy to recycle.

Other reviews of this product:

• Green Home
• Amazon
• Biokleen Automatic Dish Powder
• Biokleen Dishwasher Detegent (5/5 stars)

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in June 2008

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Cost: Around $9 for 64 oz which equals 64 plus regular loads or 128 HE (high efficiency) loads.

Basics according to the Biokleen:

• “Our Laundry liquid removes the toughest dirt, grease, stains and odors, yet is gentle enough for cloth diapers, delicate fabrics and hand washables. Rinses clean without leaving residue on clothes that can irritate skin or ruin fabrics.
• Naturally controls stains and odors.
• Makes a great pre-treat for stains.
• All of the Biokleen liquid and powder laundry products perform well in many different water conditions, including hard water.”

Website:

I’m very disappointed in the Biokleen website.

First off, their site map page is busted. Click on “Company Overview” or “Our Promise” and nothing? Also, it’s hard to find their ingredient info, in fact, I never found it, I had to pull ingredients from the actual bottle of detergent, which did not thrill me. I shouldn’t have to work so hard to look up ingredients – they should tell me about them at the site.

They also have zero pages dedicated to recycling or packaging; which in my opinion is shoddy for an eco-friendly company.

Earth-friendly qualities:

• Phosphate & Chlorine Free
• Contains only surfactants and conditioners made from coconut and or corn, orange peel, grapefruit seed and pulp, linear sulfonate, filtered water.
• Vegan.
• No artificial fragrance, colors, or preservatives.
• No negative effects on rivers, streams, plants, or wildlife.
• Kind to those with chemical sensitivities and allergies
• Rapidly biodegrades and Ozone safe.
• Not tested on animals
• Awarded top environmental honor
• Bottle is recyclable although lid is not – this might be one good reason to buy dry detergent (no lid). Bottle does remind you to recycle.

Does not contain: Phosphate, chlorine, ammonia, petroleum solvents, alcohol, butyl, glycol ether, SLS, or SLES, EDTA, DEA, no SARA Title III, CA 65, or EPA priority pollutants, no material listed by the ACGIH (American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists) as hazardous.

Whew, that’s a lot NOT in there. Now, if Biokleen got their act together and created a user friendly website, one that actually explained what all this bad stuff is, the common consumer might learn something. Still, it is a very eco-friendly detergent, one of the best on the market, I’d say.

Scent: Grapefruit Seed & Orange Peel Extract. Not strong enough for scent loving me. I would have liked a stronger grapefruit scent. However, perfect for those of you not into strong scents. The smell was light and not sticky sweet at all. The smell did not fill up my laundry room. Plus once you wash, the smell is pretty much gone. All you smell is soapy clean laundry. They also offer a clear and clean unscented version.

Test run: I washed about six loads on cold. It comes with a little measure scoop. I used the recommended amount of detergent. The detergent is pretty thick and creates a lot of bubbles right away – so thinking it was pretty thick, I ran one load on half the recommended amount and the load still came out clean. Each load came out perfectly clean and smelling nice.

However, none of our clothes were that dirty. We ran around at the park and our jeans got muddy, but mud, in my experience comes out even if you just water wash, so… How will this detergent clean up a bad clothing mess? I had no clue. Then I struck test wash gold.

BLOOD: Yup blood, no, not Cedar’s, mine. I was all, “Oh, I can cut apples and celery super quick” um no. Sliced my finger right open. I washed my finger, thought it had stopped bleeding, and Cedar called me to look at a picture. I went to see Cedar and five minutes later, looked down, and guess what? I should have put a bandage on. Lots o’ bright red blood on my very light green colored thrift store skirt. Sure I only paid $5 but I like this skirt. Was it ruined?

Steps I took: Because I’m not a laundry genius, I didn’t pre-soak, because I wasn’t sure if I should. I didn’t bother looking it up because frankly, I’m busy. I don’t own any sort of stain remover, so I threw my skirt in the clothing pile and figured I’d deal with it later. Five hours later, I start thinking, maybe I should have washed it right away. Doh! I tried to remember if you’re supposed to wash blood out in cold or warm? I had no idea, so I toss it into a cold wash with a bunch of other stuff. I used the recommended amount of detergent.

The results:

No blood! None. Yeah, I’m not the best photographer, but obviously, there’s no blood on this skirt. It all came out. As you can see this is a very light colored skirt. I was very happy. BTW later I read the instructions on the package and it says to pre-treat tough stains.
Total happy tree points:

Four out of five! I’d buy Biokleen detergent again, even though it could smell stronger. I would likely buy powder to eliminate the non-recyclable lid issue. They lose an entire point for having a hard to manage website that does not discuss ingredients, and for not discussing recycling on the site.

Don’t take my word for it:

Grist did a review on Biokleen Free & Clear Laundry Liquid and they seemed to like it, although, it didn’t work as well for them (it didn’t get out blueberries and red wine – but neither did the other detergents they reviewed). I’m surprised since it got out blood. Read the Grist review along with five others.

[all photos via Jennifer Chait's laundry adventure series]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

I’ve always used powder. Actually, I’ve mostly lived sans dishwasher in my life, so technically, I’ve mostly used my good old hands and some dish soap. However, for the last year I have had one, and I’ve used powder the whole time – usually whichever eco-brand that’s on sale. I’ve never had issues and my dishes are always clean. Why powder? No clue. Growing up my mom did, so maybe it’s habit. In any case, the other day I decided to go nuts and buy some gel, see what all the fuss is about.

I bought the Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwashing Gel in Green Apple, it also comes in lemon, but I like apple scents. Following are the eco-benefits noted at the Seventh Generation website:

• “Non-toxic
• No chlorine bleach or phosphates
• No dyes
• No NTA or EDTA
• Safe for septic & greywater systems
• Not tested on animals
• Kosher certified”

While Peggy’s powder came in a box made from 100% recycled paper (minimum 40% post-consumer), mine of course came in a bottle. I’m thinking that this may be a good reason to favor powder – the packaging is more eco-friendly.

My bottle notes that it’s 25% post consumer recycled plastic – which is not as good as Peggy’s box. Although, they do have a recycling reminder on the bottle, I’m betting that the lid, like most lids, is not recyclable.

Also like Peggy’s powder, this product discloses all ingredients, the big point of which is that there is no chlorine bleach or phosphates – take that lazy “eco” gel Palmolive.

How the green apple gel did:
I should point out how I ran my dishwashing experiment.

• I had some pretty dirty dishes and I didn’t rinse any of them. Normally I would, but, I figured if I’m running a review, let’s run a review. I had a blender covered in raspberries, a dish with mashed potatoes still stuck to it (for two days), and to really give it a go, I ran my stove top covers as well. One of my stove trays I had to pry off the stove (I know, I hadn’t cleaned the stove in a while). In any case, that’s a lot of grease and gunk.
• Ran a full load on regular.
• I followed the directions on the back of the bottle, “Fill dispenser 1/2 full.” It said use more for soiled dishes but I didn’t.
• No rinse aid. The bottle recommends a rinse aid for hard water, which I don’t have.

And the results…

CON: I thought it might smell more like green apple, like fill my kitchen with a lovely scent – it didn’t. It also didn’t smell bad though. I’m betting that they make the scent light, because they don’t have a free & clear gel, also, it takes preservatives to add fragrances. I would have liked more scent though.

PRO: It cleaned everything well except the mashed potato bowl; which frankly, should have been rinsed, also keep in mind that I didn’t use as much as they said. It got my stove top cover nice and clean and grease free. Considering it was so yucky that I had to pry it off, that’s not bad.

PRO: I had a few spots on two white coffee cups on the top rack. All the white plates, on the bottom rack were streak-free. Streaks and spots don’t bother me too much, unless they’re excessive, and I’ve found that’s due to water, not cleaner.

CON: It was super easy. I really like gel vs. powder. Although, I won’t be buying gel again because of the packaging. Seventh Generation notes, “Currently, we have 25% post-consumer content in all our laundry, dish and spray-cleaning bottles. We are working at significantly increasing this in 2008.” That’s good news, but until then, the powder is better container-wise for the planet.

My final score: Overall, I can’t recommend the gel when a perfectly good powder, in a more recyclable container is available. That said, if you really cannot live without gel detergent, then I do recommend this product. The green apple gel worked well, smelled ok, and eco-wise is way better for the planet compared to traditional conventional gels like Palmolive or Dawn. It was well priced too, at just $4 for 45 oz. Since you use very little it’ll go a long way.

Have you used this product? Let me know what you think in the comments.

[photo via Amazon]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family