Cleaning Green
July 8, 2008
Martha Stewart’s doing it. Oprah’s doing it. Heloise has been doing it for years. Then why are so many of us still stocking our cleaning caddies with toxic household cleaning products? According to unofficial statistics, the average American household contains as much as 100 lbs of hazardous materials in the form of oven cleaners, lawn care products, shower and tile cleaners, wood and metal polish, dishwasher soap and similar items. Yet, many of us continue in blissful ignorance of just how poisonous these products can be, especially with repeated use. Carpet cleaners, clothes dryer sheets, and room deodorizers, for example, may include phthalates, which are linked to asthma, allergies, and birth defects. Metal polishes, tub cleaners, and spray starch may contain formaldehyde, a human carcinogen and respiratory irritant. Oven, drain, and toilet bowl cleaners, as well as some laundry and dish detergents, may contain sodium hydroxide, or lye, which causes severe caustic damage to humans. The list goes on. Not only are we directly exposed to the toxins found in many of these items when we use them, but the residues are flushed down our drains to pollute our streams, rivers and, ultimately, the oceans.
There’s no reason to continue down this toxic road. Hundreds of companies are now marketing environmental or eco-friendly cleaning products (a Google search for “green alternatives to household products” turns up more than 2 million results), although their claims of “greenness” may or may not be valid, and the costs may be fairly steep. Another approach, now growing in popularity, is to use a handful of common household items, singly or in combination, for nearly all the day-to-day cleaning tasks. Not only are these products safer, they’re are a lot cheaper.
The Magic Five—Many cleaning experts are now promoting the cleaning power of five natural ingredients: baking soda, lemon, salt, white vinegar, and Borax. The last item is the only product that may be unfamiliar to certain age groups. Borax is a natural mineral, sodium borate, but it’s wise to use it with caution as it can be toxic to pets and children. However, its cleaning and disinfectant qualities have long been known, and our grandmothers probably used it to boost the cleansing power of laundry soap and kill mold and bacteria. Mixed together in various combinations, and sometimes used alone, these five ingredients can handle 90 percent of the cleaning tasks that may come your way. Mix baking soda and lemon juice with hot water, put in a spray bottle, and you have a citrus-y air freshener. For a mildly abrasive surface cleaner, mix vinegar and salt. Combine Borax, lemon juice and hot water for an all-purpose spray cleaner. Use undiluted vinegar or rubbing alcohol as a glass cleaner. Mix Borax, a vegetable-oil-based soap, and lemon oil into a paste for a non-abrasive cleaner. Use baking soda and vinegar to clean drains and garbage disposals. Salt used alone can often remove red wine stains.
Other handy items (and their uses) include toothpaste (to clean silver or remove water stains from wood), cool tea or olive oil (to polish furniture), cream of tartar (to clean porcelain), denture tablets (to remove stains from toilet bowls), cornstarch (mixed with vinegar and water to clean windows, mixed with baking soda to deodorize your sneakers, or used alone on grease spots), flour (mixed with salt and vinegar to clean brass), non-aerosol hairspray (to remove ink stains), dry cement (to remove grease from concrete flooring), or a pencil eraser (to remove scuff marks from floors).
Advice, tips and recipes for these and many more eco-friendly approaches to cleaning are available in numerous books, magazines and, of course, the Internet. Much of the information for this article came from http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/8088/clngrn.html.
For questions concerning the health of the North Fork, contact FNFSR at 459-8850 or friends@shentel.net.
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