Green cleaning products are being used in the White House!

These same green cleaning products were formerly used in Dick Cheney’s Vice President Residence!

Are these the first bipartisan green cleaning products?  Can there really be that kind of compromise in Washington D.C. ?

Actually, I use them and am an Independent …. I guess that means they are multi-partisan!

There is little doubt, Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee was truly a green lifestyle visionary as indicated by his life’s work and the following quote:

“Listen to the voice of nature and feel the joy of living” – Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee.

As mentioned in a news interview on a St. Louis, MO TV station of current CEO, Roger Barnett, the Shaklee Corporation introduced one of the green cleaning product lines anchored by Basic H® in 1960. (Sidenote: Rachel Carson’s – Silent Spring credited with launching the current environmental movements wasn’t even published until 1962).

Ever since they were introduced, Shaklee Corporation has continually worked to refine their green cleaning products line always striving to maintain the balance between our safety and the environment.  Shaklee’s current line of green cleaning products, Get Clean®, comprises a complete system of Earth-friendly home cleaners.

Some of the reasons why I chose Shaklee green cleaning products over 25 years ago include:

• The Get Clean® products are safe for people and the Planet;
• Tough on dirt outperforming or matching the cleaning strength of >20 national brands;
• Products like Shaklee Basic H2® (second generation of Basic H®) are ultra-concentrated reducing waste, shipping costs and not only being green but saving green ($) as well;
  • The Get Clean® starter kit can save families over $3400, eliminate > 100 pounds of packaging waste and >240 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

It is great to see even the “Big Boys” of D.C. can get beyond the politics of the day and agree on something even if it is just a line of green cleaning products that is good for all of us and the environment!

For more information about Shaklee green cleaning products and the Get Clean® line, click on the Get Clean® Starter Kit image below:

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 ….

Over the last few weeks, I have been evaluating how different terms are used by those with an interest in green living.  Today’s post will focus on the use of “green” as it pertains to three “home-brews” often touted as green cleaning products.  These environmentally or Earth friendly household products are baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar.

The real question is … are baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar truly green or Earth friendly when used as cleaning products?

There is little doubt these common household staples are relatively safe and when used in the condition (diluted to a few percent in the case of hydrogen peroxide and vinegar) and flushed down the drain they pose little harm to the environment (or water treatment facility).

This is the basis most people claiming these are viable as green cleaning products use to formulate the conclusion they are indeed green or Earth friendly.

So it must be true then … baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar can be used as green cleaning products right?

But … where do these common household products come from (besides Good Golly Miss Jolly World )?

Definitely an interesting question ….. Let’s take a look at each product:

• Baking Soda – historically baking soda was produced via a synthetic industrial chemical method called the Solvay process, a switch to the use of a natural resource, the mineral trona, occurred during the 1980s. Here in the U.S. most of the trona deposits were formed from evaporation of large inland lakes ~ 50 million years ago in western Colorado and Wyoming.  The trona deposits are now mined from several hundred feet below ground surface them brought to the surface to be processed to extract both sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and sodium carbonate (soda wash).  This does raise another question …. I wonder how many truly green or environmentally friendly mines there are in the World?  Hmmmmmm …..

• Hydrogen Peroxide – though hydrogen peroxide exists in many organisms, virtually all hydrogen peroxide is produced from another synthetic industrial chemical process (Autoxidation) involving organic chemicals such as anthraquinone, a hydrocarbon-based carrier solvent, natural gas and a metallic catalyst (nickel or palladium).  The organic chemicals involved are typically derived from petrochemical feed stocks.  As I look over the process and chemicals involved I have to wonder where the “green” part comes into play …..

• Vinegar (acetic acid) – Much of the food grade vinegar we have around the house is assumed to be derived from the fermentation of ethanol derived from vegetation.  When the label states “apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, etc. that may almost be a safe assumption, especially if you read the “ingredients label” and it clearly states vegetation as primary ingredients.  If you use biologically derived vinegar to make your own household cleaning solution you are likely being truly green.  However, if you by a commercial product labeled as containing vinegar it is likely the source was from synthetic sources of ethanol (including petroleum) since only 10% of all acetic acid produced comes directly from biologic sources (vegetation) and mass production of the synthetic form is much cheaper to produce.

So in the final analysis how does each of these highly touted “green cleaning products” stand up to the scrutiny?

1. Baking soda-derived from processing of a mined Earth resource – NOT GREEN!
2. Hydrogen Peroxide – derived from industrial chemical synthesis – NOT GREEN!
3. Vinegar – if derived from a clearly labeled plant source – LIKELY GREEN!
   1. if an ingredient in commercial “green” cleaner – NOT LIKELY GREEN!

Let me know how you feel about baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar as green cleaning products by commenting below!

A podcast with my thoughts on people’s perception of the word “chemical” (be patient, it may take a moment to load):

Right click to download the audio MP3 file: Meaning of Chemical

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Interesting question isn’t it?

Read the short post below and listen to the podcast above and see why I believe a lot of people really don’t know the answer!

Many people seem to think that if household cleaning products (or other products for that matter) contain chemicals, they must be toxic, unsafe or not earth-friendly.  Part of the issue again comes down to a combination of multiple meanings for a term, in this case chemical, as well as confusion about chemicals that might be in various products.

The fundamental meaning of the word chemical relates to the fact that all matter is made of the chemical elements.  Therefore the only time there would not be chemicals present if there was an absolute vacuum.  We could not survive in an absolute vacuum!

Everything around us is chemical.

The air is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, etc.

Water is H₂O and we can’t live without it!

Arsenic is a naturally occurring chemical element we can pretty much live without!

Every material in the environment around us including our household cleaning products consists of chemical compounds and nothing, other than an absolute vacuum can be 100% chemical free ….

Keep these facts in mind as you listen to the podcast and please leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts!

During the process of researching green or eco friendly cleaning products I commonly ran into discussions about cleaners made from household items (vinegar, baking soda, etc.) and how they were safer than most commercial green cleaning products from companies like Seventh Generation, Shaklee (Get Clean line) or Better Life.

As I followed the discussion across several different blog comment threads, people would commonly refer to health hazard data compiled on material safety data sheets (MSDS) to identify health and toxicological information when presenting their arguments.

It seemed when proponents of the homemade cleaners made an argument against common commercial green cleaners, they would identify the major compound in the commercial cleaner and refer to data from the MSDS sheet for that pure compound.

I instantly saw a problem with their analysis since they were often comparing vinegar (a 5% (dilute) solution of acetic acid) against the data for the concentrated (100%) form of the compound of concern in the commercial green cleaning product.

As a result, I prepared the following video noting my concern for this type of analysis by showing some examples of MSDS health hazard data for three compounds used in green or eco friendly cleaning products.

Please watch the video making note of the compounds compared and data on each of the MSDS sheets then comment below!

I look forward to your thoughts and comments!