Upon closer inspection, many traditional cleaning products are made of complex ingredients, harmful and hazardous to health and the environment. Given the proliferation of chronic diseases and the climate emergency, everyone must adopt eco-responsible consumption habits. Thus, eco-friendly cleaning products are becoming a solution that is increasingly embraced by most households. But are they really effective? Why should we prefer them over traditional products and other degreasing sprays?
We’ll delve into this topic in this article.
An eco-friendly cleaner refers to any product that has a limited impact on the user’s health and the environment throughout its lifecycle. Therefore, from the extraction of raw materials used in its manufacture to its usage and transportation, it generates less ecological footprint.
Free of controversial ingredients, these products prioritize recyclable, plant-based, or organic farming-derived materials such as canola, sugars, copra, etc. They represent green chemistry that combines health protection and respect for the environment, aiming to limit the depletion of natural resources for sustainable development.
In terms of effectiveness, eco-friendly cleaning products are of genuine quality. Indeed, according to the Regional Centre for River Initiation, these products perform equivalent to chemical cleaners. Some of them, notably baking soda or montmorillonite, are even better.
Furthermore, it should be noted that eco-friendly cleaning products are classified into two categories. Firstly, we have 100% eco-friendly products such as the “Blanc de Meudon,” baking soda, montmorillonite, etc. Secondly, some products only have an eco-label.
The eco-label is a mark that informs about products’ low toxicity (or non-toxicity) and biodegradability. For example, these certifications are the basis for identifying an eco-friendly cleaning product in a store aisle. The most well-known labels in France are:
This French eco-label, awarded by AFNOR, certifies a product’s ecological quality, notably limiting its environmental impacts. All products bearing it are:
The European Ecolabel is the only official European certification in terms of the ecological quality of cleaning products. It is awarded to products that comply with its 29 mandatory and 61 optional criteria. The most prominent points concern the absence of dangerous substances, limiting the environmental impact during production and use.
Ecocert is a certification body that ensures your products’ naturalness and environmental footprint.
According to the international COSMOS standard or the private Ecocert reference, the certification allows you to label your natural or organic products.
All products marketed with the Ecocert logo have been verified by our teams: from the composition and processing method to their packaging.
Consumers thus have access to transparent information on the content of natural and organic ingredients indicated on the products.Natural origin
All ingredients used are of natural origin except for a restrictive list of approved ingredients (including preservatives) allowed in small quantities.
On average, Ecocert-certified products contain 99% of natural origin ingredients.Source: https://www.ecocert.com/fr-FR/certification/cosmetiques-biologiques-ou-naturels-cosmos
Eco-friendly cleaning products are helpful in many ways. Designed with a clear idea of respect for health and the planet, their effectiveness is absolutely sure. Here are the reasons why you should choose this category of products:
Using 100% eco-friendly or eco-labeled cleaners helps prevent inhaling and/or handling dangerous substances. Indeed, conventional cleaning products such as degreasers, descalers, bleach, or others are a complex mixture of synthetic substances. These include hydrochloric acid, EDTA, hydrogen peroxide, and sodium meta periodate. These products are dangerous because they are irritating, corrosive, allergenic, harmful, or even toxic to humans and the environment.
And yet, they can easily be replaced by opting for eco-friendly cleaners, thus limiting the risk of asthma, respiratory problems, and burns that the entire household is exposed to. Therefore, adopting eco-labeled products is a way to lead a healthy lifestyle.
If conventional cleaners threaten human health, they are just as dangerous to our planet. Considering the climate change warnings issued by all scientific units, the need to opt for eco-friendly cleaning products seems entirely justified.
Aside from their chemical composition that already pollutes the air and water, conventional cleaners threaten the environment in another way. In reality, the majority of them are contained in non-biodegradable plastic packaging. Most of these microplastics end up in the oceans, thus destabilizing marine flora and fauna and, indirectly, the global ecosystem.
Therefore, choosing eco-labeled cleaning products is a way to limit the proliferation of non-biodegradable waste. Labels ban plastic or single-use containers that tend to accumulate this waste. Thus, to limit waste accumulation, shower gel, laundry detergent, household spray, hand wash, floor cleaner, and other necessary products are sold in recyclable containers (glass, paper). These hygiene products eliminate the massive amount of plastic in the trash every week.
Before developing an eco-friendly cleaning product, specialized laboratories seek to associate the natural equivalents of the chemical substances usually used. This task is not easy and indeed explains the difficulties encountered in the effectiveness of these products at their beginning.
However, exciting progress has been made recently regarding performance and efficiency. Today, it’s easy to find eco-friendly cleaners that are just as effective as their chemical counterparts. With eco-friendly household water cleaners, we have developed cleaning products as effective as chemical ones after 1.5 years of research with our laboratory. You can discover our range with our kit to clean your entire house.
At a time when responsible consumption has become a necessity for survival, priority must be given to eco-friendly cleaning products, as they come from local production. Most conventional products – especially those from major brands – are made in polluting factories. Thus, turning towards eco-friendly products is a way to support local production that respects the environment. It is also a way to advocate for a green economy and to promote Made in France.
People often tend to believe that eco-friendly cleaning products are more expensive, discouraging those with a limited budget. But in reality, this observation is only partially accurate. Indeed, eco-labeled products are sometimes costly, but this overlooks the multiple uses that can be made of them. This implies that the same product can be used as a hand wash to clean rooms, as it is devoid of risky substances.
Furthermore, many companies specializing in designing and distributing these products adopt a commercial policy to make them accessible to as many people as possible. It is clear that the more eco-friendly cleaners succeed, the less our ecological footprint will be.
Firstly, the absence of dyes and chemical additives in eco-friendly hygiene products prevents the production of green apples, fluorescent yellow, or lavender-blue products. The colors are rather pale, clear or even transparent. Furthermore, the smell released after using eco-friendly cleaners comes from essential oils or vegetable extracts: so there are no fleeting or annoying smells. As a result, the shelf life of these products after opening ranges from 12 to 24 months. Therefore, there is no need to rush to use these products for fear of losing their effectiveness. What is natural is durable!
To sum it up, eco-friendly cleaning products are designed to preserve the user’s health and limit the ecological impact. Reasonably, they are well on their way to replacing conventional products full of controversial substances.
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