Eco-tip: Green your spring cleaning with less waste, safer products
With recent rains and cold weather, it may feel like winter, but spring officially started last week. Are you ready for spring cleaning?
For those wanting to “green” the process, cleaning is not just a matter of removing material such as dirt, grime, crumbs, skin cells or pet hair from surfaces and crevices. It also doesn't just mean disinfection.
Instead, the meaning of “clean” can include removing pollutants and cutting waste. Killing germs is important, but battling biological enemies does not have to come at the cost of tolerating chemical pollutants and creating waste.
The Ventura County General Services Agency’s 2023 Earth Day guide, distributed in preparation for next month’s Earth Day facility tour, describes several green methods and products custodial crews at county facilities use to clean facilities serving thousands of people per day. The guide emphasizes products and methods are evaluated not just on the basis of cost and efficacy, but also with consideration for recycled content, landfill and water impacts and chemical content.
Green soap dispensers are one simple success highlighted in the guide. The agency reports replacing 96% of soap dispensers in buildings served by county custodians. The guide notes the new foaming soap is bio-based and "Green Seal" certified. Impressively, mainly by dispensing as a foam from a compressed source, rather than transferring liquid soaps from a wall-mounted container to a customer’s hands, the new system has reduced soap costs by 50%, the guide says.
Such soaps are also available for residential use. A search at Amazon.com for “nontoxic foaming soaps” generated 430 results. Many of these come with refillable dispensers, so customers can buy refills in large bottles, saving money and cutting waste.
The Green Seal certification refers to a nonprofit organization that has been certifying products for more than three decades. Other nonprofits, as well as public agencies, also manage certification programs. However, Green Seal was an innovator and is known for its rigorous health, sustainability and performance standards. At greenseal.org, consumers can find certified products and services for home, school and work.
If you do not see Green Seal certified options when buying cleaning products, you can still make greener choices by avoiding products labeled with the words “danger,” poison,” “caution” or “warning.” You might also avoid toxic products and excessive packaging by creating your own cleaning, polishing and deodorizing products from nontoxic ingredients such as baking soda, cornstarch, toothpaste, lemon juice, vegetable-based liquid soap, vinegar and borax.
Recipes for 10 such homemade cleaning solutions are available at realsimple.com by searching "homemade cleaning." Many of these recipes start with plant-based cleaners. There are even plant-based disinfectants. The most common is vinegar, which is a great cleaner, but not as powerful as bleach or alcohol.
If a plant-based solution does not work as quickly or effectively as chemical-based cleaners and disinfectants, the difference can often be overcome with the addition of another ingredient: elbow grease. When applying these cleaners, start with less abrasive tools, such as nylon scrubbers, then work your way up to toothbrushes, pencil erasers, steel wool, pumice bars or single-edge razor blades if you need to really scrape and scrub.
Basic, chemical-based cleaning products can be used in less environmentally taxing ways. For example, bleach solution, according to the label, may be mixed from a bulk container at a rate of one-third cup per gallon of water. This reduces the consumption of individually packaged, bleach-based products. Just don't mix bleach with ammonia when making your own cleaning products. Doing so produces a toxic gas.
The county's Earth Day Tour of the government center will take place at noon on April 21. Meet at the fountain outside the Hall of Administration. Register in advance at ventura.org/general-services-agency/earthday/.
David Goldstein, an environmental resource analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency, can be reached at 805-658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Eco-tip: Green your spring cleaning with less waste, safer products
