Clorox has made a big splash with the Green Works like of green cleaning products. They are the green categories’ sales leader.

How green is the their Natural All-Purpose Cleaner? They claim 99% all natural ingredients. MSDS sheet shows only hazardous ingredients as Alkyl polyglucoside (lowers water surface tension, enabling chemicals to spread and penetrate easily) and Ethyl alcohol. Clorox has said their alkyl polyglucoside comes from coconut oil.

According to Treehugger – “Preservative (Kathon) and colorant (Milliken Liquitint Blue HP dye and Bright Yellow dye X); — make up the circa 1% of the non-”natural” petroleum-derived portion of the cleaners (though Clorox says Kathon will biodegrade within 28 days.”

Kathon is not so harmless MSDS lists – “Irritating to skin. Risk of serious damage to eyes.May cause sensitization by skin contact. Harmful to aquatic organisms, may cause long­ term adverse effects in the aquatic environment.”

A similar Method cleaner’s ingredients shows soda ash and potassium hydrate (corrosive lye). You have to email them for MSDS sheets. Hmm.
The MSDS sheet does not list any hazardous ingredients. CHEMICAL FORMULA listed as “Proprietary Mixture”

Seventh Generation All purpose cleaner has 0.05% of the non natural preservative hexahydro-1,3,5-tris (2-hydroxyethyl)-s-triazine. The company is aware that this is not good for the environment and is looking for an alternative by the end of 2008. According to them “None of the preservatives we are testing at this time are natural because no natural preservative we have evaluated is safe and effective in our products.” MSDS

As we have seen there is no free lunch, tradeoffs are all over. Green Works is far better than the non ‘green’ cleaners that have 95% market share and it is distributed in main stream grocery stores where the masses can buy it instead of more toxic alternatives.

You could roll your own green cleaning solution with vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, etc, if you are so inclined. Which most are unfortunately not.

Bottom line, I’d choose Green Works if I could not purchase Method or Seventh Generation.

Amazon carries brands like Method and has free shipping, so do not sweat over local availability. Method has soap, floor cleaner, shower spray, tube and tile cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, laundry detergent, fabric softener, and more.

New Recyclable Cardboard Bottle

An innovative, new Recyclable Cardboard Bottle from Ecologic Brands is being used by Seventh Generation in their concentrated liquid detergent. The bottle this made from recycled newspaper and cardboard, a slim inner plastic pouch holds the liquid. You can wash the plastic pouch and recycle it like any #4 plastic. Their pouch uses up to 70% less plastic and the outer shell can be recycled or composted. Let’s hope more products use innovative packaging like this.

method ultra Concentrated Laundry Detergent – 8x

method ultra Concentrated Laundry Detergent is now available. The 20 ounce bottle is good for 50 loads of laundry. Smaller bottle = less cost, less 50% post-consumer recycled plastic, less fuel burned in shipment. They claim a 35% smaller carbon footprint than conventional 2x concentrated detergent. Dye-free, hypo-allergenic, and 95% plant based formula helps make it more green. method is open about the ingredients it uses, no need to do sleuthing to find the MSDS documents. The bottle is even recyclable. It is the world’s first Cradle to Cradle certified laundry detergent.

Method O Mop All Floor Cleaning kit

Method has a new O Mop All Floor care kit with compostable sweeper clothes and lemon-ginger all floor cleaner, $32.99 from Amazon. Ergonomic mop, corn-based sweeping clothes, reusable microfiber mop pad.

Got a Swifter? You could probably buy their $18 compostable, corn-derived sweeper dusters and use it with it. No need to buy the whole kit. You then have a more eco friendly alternative in duster clothes.

Method has a new way of packaging refill products such as their foaming hand wash refill and their laundry detergent, and dish soap. They use a pouch with easy pour spout that they claim uses 83% less footprint than a rigid plastic bottle.  It uses less plastic, energy, and water. Refills are in widespread use in Europe, where they are more green and landfills are as plentiful.

The pouch itself is a stock pouch from Winpack International, so more vendors may start using this packaging. Consumers can save money by purchasing refills, while companies can actually make more money. Less fuel is utilized transporting packaging and essentially water. Concentrated refills save even more money, and just require the addition of water.

It will take some time for consumers to accept refilling. Hand pump soaps are one area in which refills have gained acceptance.

Recycling Refill Pouches

Now is this pouch recyclable? NO! There was no recycling information or plastic number on their pouch. Method states:

Update: TerraCycle is now providing recycling services for these types of pouches. It is a pain to send them in, but it is available nonetheless.

Windex is now selling concentrated refill pouches for their glass cleaner. They state it uses 90% less plastic than a 26 ounce bottle, it saves transporting about 1.5 pounds of water, and possibly most important, saves the customer one dollar.