Nature's Green Remedy

Continuing the article series examining green cleaning products, this post looks at “ready-to use” and concentrated cleaning products derived from vegetation sources such as coconuts, corn, palm, etc.  In this post, I am focusing on green cleaning agents derived from coconuts to simplify the analysis.

Many of the coconut-based cleaning agents used in major brands are reported to be relatively safe and easily biodegradable as was the case with the materials evaluated earlier (baking soda, vinegar, etc.).  Therefore this evaluation considers the nature of the source of the cleaning agents and some of the steps involved as the product evolves from the coconut tree until it gets into the consumers’ hands.

First of all, the source is from a living plant supplying the raw ingredients on a periodic basis; a definite renewable source!  The plant also uses atmospheric CO₂ as it continues to live and produce the fruit and oil and therefore is an ongoing absorber of an additional environmental concern playing a role in removing greenhouse gases.

Additionally, most coconut-based cleaning agents are derived from raw coconut oil as it is being refined and the cleaning agents are constructive byproducts of the refining process.

Once the cleaning agents are produced, they are then delivered to various companies to formulate their specific “green cleaning product”.

Some companies opt to formulate their product at a “ready to use” concentration as matter of convenience while others deliver a highly concentrated formulation where the end user mixes the final use solutions in spray bottles or for other uses.

Though each vendor is still using an environmentally friendly agent, in my mind, there are distinct advantages to using the highly concentrated alternative:

• The only ingredient the consumer adds to the highly concentrated coconut-derived cleaning product is water therefore saving the cost of shipping a relatively large quantity of water;
• Less packaging is required since the highly concentrated cleaner is used to make the “ready-to-use” solutions many times over;
• Far less fuel is used to ship the highly concentrated cleaner (also saving on the cost of shipping as well); and
• Re-use of cleaner and mix bottles over and over again minimizes the amount of plastic waste to be sent out for disposal or recycling.

Granted the “ready-to-use” formulation is more convenient and some would consider less “sloppy”, I still believe a little effort to mix the final cleaning solutions may well be worth the effort considering what is being saved.

(Of course this could be the latent chemist starting to rear its nerdy head as well!)

Now that I have given you my viewpoint about vegetation or coconut-based green cleaning products, please let me know yours by commenting below ….