When it comes to cleaning, “going green” is one of the best choices you can make for yourself and your family; not only is making the switch to environmentally friendly cleaning products relatively easy, it makes your home a safer place while also saving you money.
If you’re still on the fence about going green, consider the following seven compelling reasons to throw out your chemical cleaners and invest in environmentally friendly cleaning products instead:
You’ll Reduce you and your Family’s Exposure to Hazardous Chemicals
Have you ever noticed how many conventional cleaners have warning labels placed on them, cautioning us that they are toxic or highly combustible? Not only do these properties pose a direct danger—children and pets may accidentally ingest them, resulting in poisoning—they also leave toxic residues behind, many of which wind up in our bodies and slowly accumulate there. Every time you prepare food on a countertop cleaned with a chemical cleaner, for example, you’re destined to consume a low level of toxic chemicals, including carcinogens, neurotoxins, mutagens, teratogens, and/or endocrine disruptors.
Many people who make the switch over to environmentally friendly cleaning products report that mysterious chronic health issues (such as coughing, sneezing, skin rashes, and headaches) they were living with prior spontaneously vanish.
You’ll Improve your Home’s Indoor Air Quality
Conventional cleaners are typically loaded with Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), which have been link to a wide variety of health problems, notably liver damage, kidney damage, asthma and other respiratory illnesses, and damage to the central nervous system. VOCs are released when products are either used during routine cleaning or stored over extended periods of time, and according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s article, “An Introduction to Indoor Air Quality”, these compounds can linger in the air for extended periods, making them easy to accidentally inhale.
You’ll Help Protect the Environment
Most of the chemicals in conventional cleaning products wind up going down the drain or enter landfills when old cleaners are disposed of carelessly, and from there, they slowly seep out into the world’s water supply (detergent metabolites, e.g. alkylphenol ethoxylates, and disinfectants cannot be fully removed from water through current water treatment techniques). Likewise, quite a few cleaners contain petroleum products, an unsustainable resource.
Environmentally friendly cleaning products, on the other hand, are made using sustainable manufacturing practices (many of them can even be made at home from harmless household staples, such as baking soda and vinegar) and are naturally derived, safe, non-toxic, and biodegradable—as such, they pose no threat to the environment whatsoever.
Additionally, if you do decide to buy green cleaners rather than make your own, you’ll probably wind up donating some of the profits to an environmental initiative; many of the companies which manufacture green cleaning products take social and environmental responsibility very seriously, and actively contribute to various programs aimed at protecting the natural world.
You’ll Save Money
As mentioned above, there’s no need to go out and buy a whole new set of green cleaning products—many of the best environmentally friendly cleaning products can easily be made at home from readily-available and inexpensive ingredients. Even better, most of these cleaners are somewhat “all-purpose”, and can be used for many different jobs. Vinegar and lemon juice, for example, are excellent all-purpose cleaners and disinfectants, and plain baking soda can be used both as a safe abrasive cleaner and an all-purpose deodouriser.
You can even get creative in this process and add your own natural scents (such as essential oils) and other ingredients, whipping up pleasant custom cleaning products for every area of your home.
You Will be Able to Clean Faster
Nothing slows down the cleaning process quite like having to use an arsenal of different cleaners—a habit most of us have been lured into, as having a different cleaner for every job results in more money being spent on cleaners. In reality, a simple vinegar mixture can replace everything from mould and mildew removers, to window cleaners, all-purpose cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners, and more. With just a few green cleaning products, you can clean your entire house rapidly, without having to return to your storage area and hunt up a new cleaner every time you change jobs. Better still, you won’t have to worry about accidentally mixing two chemicals that react dangerously to one another as you juggle multiple conventional cleaners.
You’ll Set a Positive Example for Others
Many people don’t make the switch over to environmentally friendly cleaning products because they are worried they will not clean as well nor effectively kill germs; as such, when you showcase a home or office that has been meticulously cleaned with green cleaners, you show those around you that it is indeed possible—and encourage them to follow suit.