Directory:Home Generation:Natural Cleaning Products

From PESWiki

A growing number of manufacturers (eg Ecover, ...) are offering consumers a variety of natural cleaning products. These products may be used for regular hand cleaning, as well as in devices as dishwashers. Effective natural cleaning products can also be made from common household ingredients , such as:

• lemon juice
• borax
• vinegar
• salt
• mineral oil
• baking soda
• washing soda
• vegetable based soap
• Plants with high saponin levels

Advantages

The exclusive use of natural cleaning products allows to lower the needed inputs required for water purification. Especially in areas where small-scale, individual systems need to be used to purify the water this allows a huge decrease in the costs/size of the installation. Also, in certain cases, it allows the system to be discarded completely, as regular water diversion may result to suffice instead. As an added advantage, nutrient recycling in certain greywater systems may be increased, allowing gains for domestic food production systems (eg permaculture systems, ...), used at home.

Note that in some cases, more scrubbing will be needed with these organic soaps/detergents; to make up for this it is best to switch to use oil-leaner and/or more pure foodstuffs in your private food production system. Perhaps macrobiotic/vegan/vegetarian alternatives as tofu, rice may be used instead of hamburgers/porkchops and potatoes. If these are used, cleaning will be even easier than when using "common" foods and chemical detergents. Abide however, when using a dishwasher, in order to get evrything clean enough, to some extra trouble and rinse the dishes with water inmediatly after dinner (so that eating remains as oils, sugars, ...) do not get a chance to attach (strongly) to the dishes.

External links

• Hazardous Ingredients in Household Products (http://www.preventcancer.com/press/pdfs/hazardous.pdf)
• Guide to Less Toxic Products (http://www.lesstoxicguide.ca)
• The Seventh Generation Guide to a Toxin-Free Home (http://www.seventhgeneration.com/upload/photos/18Toxin-Free_Home_Guide.pdf)
• Green Living Ideas - How to make cleaning cloths (http://greenlivingideas.com/household-cleaning/alternative-cleaning-cloths.html) (from loofah -plants)
• Green Living Ideas - Natural organic cleaning recipes (http://greenlivingideas.com/household-cleaning/natural-cleaning-recipes.html)
• Greenpeace Canada: Basic Recipes for Green Cleaning (http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/take-action/greentips/basic-recipes)
• Green Glossary (http://www.one-source.com/en/features_greenglossary.html)
• Natural Cleaning products (http://www.charityguide.org/volunteer/fifteen/natural-cleaning-products.htm)
• The Big Green Idea - DIY Green Cleaning mixtures (http://www.thebiggreenidea.org/factSheets.cfm)
• Hydrogen peroxide for cleaning - non-toxic and beneficial to plants/environment (http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.com/using-hydrogen-peroxide-for-cleaning.html)