These days there is definitely a trend towards using environmentally-conscious products, and for good reason. While modern cleaning products are effective at removing dust, allergens, and microscopic debris from our homes, certain products can present health and environmental concerns. Some products contain chemicals that are linked to skin and respiratory irritation, as well as other health issues. Concentrated forms of cleaning products can be especially dangerous, and some are even classified as hazardous, making their use, handling, and disposal a delicate task. Reducing the risks of using these cleaning products will effectively cleaning your areas is a fine line to walk, and we aim to give you a few tips with this guide.
Why Go Green
Before we go into the nitty-gritty of how to keep your cleaning products green, let’s talk about why you should go green. Choosing less harmful products will improve the health of your cleaning workers and building occupants, reduce water and air pollution, and improve the air quality of your building. Buying green also reduces energy expenditure causes during transportation and packaging, and buying less hazardous cleaners reduces costs when it’s time to dispose of them. For example, certain cleaners can be toxic to aquatic species, and if it gets introduced to their environment, it could disrupt the ecosystem (source).
What You Can Do
When deciding which cleaning products to use for your home or business, you should take into account the product’s price, effectiveness, and environmental impact. You should look at a few different options for different cleaning products and then make the best decision out of those options. Also note that there are many eco-friendly cleaning products available online that are not available in stores, so conducting a quick Google search will be beneficial. If all this is too much work, just hire a professional carpet cleaning service like The Torrance Carpet Cleaners to take care of it for you. They use eco-friendly cleaning products and make sure to leave your home with a quality clean.
Specific Product Characteristics
To make an informed purchasing decision, you’ll need to know what kind of products to stay away from. Here are some harmful product characteristics you should be aware of:
- Stay away from products with harmful chemicals such as:
- Corrosive or irritating substances
- Substances known as or likely to be human carcinogens
- Ozone depleting compounds
- Use products made from renewable resources, such as solvents from citrus, vegetable, seed, and pine oil.
- Low flammability
- Designed for use in cold water (this conserves energy)
- Biodegradeable
- Recycleable packaging (then recycle it!)
- Refillable containers (then refill it!)
- Concentrated formulas
We hope this short guide gives you some insight into how you can keep your home or office a green space.