How to Find Clean Cleaning Products
The irony of this is not lost on me, but here are some resources + my favorite brands.
I don’t know what kind of twisted world we live in where products we use to “clean” actually are very dirty. Like full of hazardous chemicals. This just seems absolutely absurd to me, but here we are.
While many other industries, like beauty or food, are required to list ingredients, companies that make cleaning products are not. And they don’t. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that after looking at over 1000 cleaning products, 48% of them listed an incomplete list of three or less ingredients. Apparently, US law allows cleaning product manufactures to use any ingredients they want, including known carcinogens or chemicals that can affect fetal development. And, they don’t do safety checks.
2000 new chemicals a year (7 a day) are introduced for commercial use in the US. Here’s a quote from the EWG website — I thought about rephrasing it, but felt like it was important to leave as is:
Although government scientific and regulatory agencies have focused considerable attention on chemicals suspected of causing cancer, they have devoted far fewer resources to evaluating substances that may be toxic to the brain and nervous system, the hormone system and other organs. Investigating the full range of risks of cleaning products to public health and the environment should be an urgent priority. Yet the problem remains largely hidden from the view of the American consumer.
That was a gloomy paragraph, I know, but the good news is that there is actually a growing group of honest companies creating really great cleaning products, and a some very helpful resources that make it easier for us normal folk to figure out what to buy.
RESOURCES
Where to shop
If you feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, just shop at one of these places with quality standards. They’re essentially doing the work for you!
Whole Foods has strict and evolving quality standards that include a list of banned chemicals (you can find the growing list here). They also require that most ingredients are listed on the label and they do quality control tests to make sure the products actually work.
Thrive Market also has rigid standards for the products they carry and offers a lot of transparency on ingredients and environmental impact. Bonus: Many of their products are heavily discounted, which is certainly a welcome breath of fresh air, as premium products often come at a premium price!
Certifications
A few labels to look out for: EWG Verified, Green Seal, Ecologo, Made Safe, and Safer Choice.
Also, if you are a research nerd (hello, friend), the EWG has a great guide to healthy cleaning. They also have an app.
BRANDS
Now onto the brands. Here are a few brands that I like. If there are others you like, please add in the comments!
A FEW OTHER THINGS
Clean air
The air in our home is much more toxic than the air outdoors. Here are a few in-home devices that can help to filter out any toxins in the air from cleaning products or other contaminates.
Vacuum: Some vacuums actually have an air cleaning filter, like this one I bought recently.
Air purifier: You could also invest in an air purifier. I love my Molekule—it not only filters the air but also destroys bacteria and viruses. There’s a mini one too for smaller spaces.
I just think this is a great company
Did you know we flush 27,000 trees a day down the toilet? This TP, loo roll, whatever you want to call it, is made from bamboo instead.
PlantPaper: One roll of conventional toilet paper uses 37 gallons of water, over a gallon of bleach, formaldehyde, and other chemical (per roll!). A new study found that conventional toilet paper has PFAS (‘forever chemicals’) which have been associated with decreased fertility, hypertension in pregnant people, increased cancer risk, developmental delays in children, hormonal irregularities, decreased immune function, and more.
I reached out to the PlantPaper team because I love this product so much, and they generously offered a discount code for you all! Use the code MIA25 for 25% off your first subscription.