Tough stains need a tough cleaner. This is what many people think. So are environmentally friendly cleaning products effective, even with stubborn dirt?
Most household cleaners contain harsh chemicals, because there is a general belief that without them, they wouldn’t get rid of dirt.
And while these nasties do a good job, they are also harmful for our health and the environment.
Eco-friendly household cleaners don’t use these toxic chemicals, which begs the question: are environmentally friendly cleaning products effective?
Let’s find out…
How Chemicals Work To Clean Your Home
In order to answer the question “are environmentally friendly cleaning products effective?” we have to understand how the chemicals in traditional household cleaners work.
Because we know that they work, so if we know why they work, we can look at eco-friendly cleaners to see if they have the same properties.
A cleaner has generally two functions:
- Lift and remove dirt
- Kill harmful bacteria
Most also include perfumes to make the house smell good, because we have been trained by years of adverts that only a freshly smelling house is a clean house.
But because this does not actually contribute to the task of cleaning, we can ignore this here.
Before we have a closer look at the two functions, let’s understand dirt better. After all, you have to know your enemy to fight it.
Most dirt we encounter in our home is oil-based. This means we can’t just use water to clean it away. As you might know, oil and water don’t mix.
So alone water would not be able to shift the oil-based dirt. That’s why cleaners need chemicals to allow the water and oil to combine, so that the water can wash away the dirt.
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1. Lift And Remove Dirt
The way these cleaning chemicals, also called detergents, work is by consisting of two parts. Imagine them like a stick. One end loves water, so is hydrophilic, the other end hates water, which means it’s hydrophobic.
When these chemicals are added to water, the sticks form something that looks a bit like a simply drawn star. The hydrophobic ends congregate in the middle and the hydrophilic ends stick out.
By doing so, the chemicals create a water-free area in the middle. And because the oil-based dirt doesn’t like water either, it will flee into the water-free area the chemicals have created.
Thereby trapping the dirt, so that the water can wash it away. That’s basically how a general cleaner works. This is the foam that you get with, for example, a washing up liquid.
But not all dirt will be captured like this. That’s why either further chemicals with different properties are added, or a different cleaner is made with other chemicals.
Sometimes, the dirt particles are too big to be captured by the general cleaning agents. That’s when emulsifiers are added. These are chemicals that break down larger dirt pieces.
Then the detergents can catch them, so you can wipe them away.
All cleaners contain water, because it can carry chemicals. But water has a high surface tension. This means if a drop of water hits your kitchen surface, it stays there as a round drop.
Try it out; it’s rather fascinating. That’s no good for cleaning though, because it means the chemicals can only reach a limited surface area.
So many household cleaners also contain wetting agents. These reduce the surface tension of water, which means rather than staying in a drop, it will spread over your kitchen top.
This allows the water to reach more areas for the chemicals to do their thing.
Solvency agents are also added to allow the chemicals to be distributed across the water. So when you spray your cleaner on the sink, the cleaning agents are in every drop, not just in some of them.
Because most of us live in hard water areas, cleaners also contain chelation agents. These prevent the cleaning agents from interacting with the calcium and magnesium in hard water.
Without these chemicals, the cleaning product would foam less, which means there are fewer areas for oil-based dirt particles to be captured. As a result, the cleaner isn’t as effective.
To be able to answer yes to the question “are environmentally friendly cleaning products effective?”, they have to contain natural ingredients that have comparable properties.
2. Kill Harmful Bacteria
A surface can only be considered clean, if all harmful bacteria have been removed. To achieve this, disinfectants are added to cleaning products.
An example of these bad bacteria are e.coli bacteria. They often occur in the kitchen and can cause food poisoning. You don’t want them on your kitchen surfaces.
So for a household cleaner to be effective, it has to get rid of any harmful germs to create a clean and safe environment for your family.
But are environmentally friendly cleaning products effective in getting rid of bad bacteria?
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Natural Ingredients In Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
The problem with all these cleaning agents, of course, is that most of them are petroleum-based, synthetic chemicals. Not only are they made from fossil fuels, manufacturing them uses a lot of energy.
And some manufacturing processes create by-products that are hazardous for our health and the environment.
So what we want from eco-friendly cleaning products are the same cleaning capabilities as described above, minus the harmful chemicals. Is that possible?
The answer is YES. There are natural occurring compounds that can do the same thing as the chemicals in traditional cleaning products.
But because they are natural, they won’t cause harm to the environment or our health.
Bicarbonate of soda or baking soda is one of these natural ingredients with cleaning agent properties. When it comes in contact with grease, it forms fatty acid salts.
These work similar to the cleaning agents we described earlier. They consist of a water-loving and a water-hating part. The oil-based grease will congregate around the hydrophobic parts, forming a similar star-shape as detergents.
The grease can then be washed away or wiped away, and you are left with a clean surface.
Other natural ingredients that have similar capabilities like the synthetic chemicals used in regular cleaning products are white vinegar, citric acid and salt.
White vinegar is an acid that also kills some bacteria. While it is not as strong as synthetic chemicals such as bleach, they have been proven to have disinfecting properties.
Reserach has found that vinegar can kill several harmful bacteria, such as e.coli. But at the same time, it’s a natural ingredient that won’t harm you or the environment.
However, being a milder disinfectant, it will not be as powerful as for example bleach. But for cleaning your kitchen and bathroom, it is powerful enough to keep them clean and safe.
Green cleaners that only use natural and eco-friendly ingredients will use baking soda, vinegar and citric acid. They combine them with less common ingredients, that are still natural, such as natural emulsifiers.
In that way, these natural cleaning products are just as effective as traditional ones.
Do Green Cleaning Products Work?
Now let’s get down to it. Are Environmentally Friendly Cleaning Products Effective? The simple answer is yes.
We have already seen that they use natural ingredients that have similar properties to their chemical equivalents.
In actual fact, these natural ingredients work just as well as any chemicals.
We have been taught, through adverts, that only harsh chemicals will be able to keep our home clean. But that is simply not true.
Milder, natural ingredients can do the same thing. And because they are milder, they aren’t corrosive. This means they are less likely to cause any damage to your surfaces.
But because they are milder, it might take a bit more elbow grease to get rid of tough stains. The harsh chemicals are not necessary to get your home clean, but to get it clean quicker and with less effort.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all for making cleaning quicker and easier, but at what cost? I happily put in a bit more time and effort, if it means I don’t impact on the environment.
And let’s not forget that these harsh chemicals are also bad for our health.
One other thing you should be aware of is that natural cleaners might need to be left a bit longer. Again, this is because they are milder.
For example, my eco-friendly toilet bowl cleaner requires to be left for 10 minutes before I can scrub and flush. Toilet bowl cleaners that contain bleach can be scrubbed and flushed immediately.
I don’t know about you, but I rather leave a product for longer, than use something that can seriously harm me (have you read the warnings on those things?!) or the environment.
Another myth we have internalised is that all bacteria and germs are harmful and have to be destroyed. The pandemic has surely increased our fear of germs.
While it’s true that there are some bacteria and germs that are bad, even dangerous, there are also many that are beneficial.
Did you know that a coarse cloth rinsed under hot water will remove these bad germs from your surfaces? Then you rinse them down the sink and they are gone.
We don’t need to kill them, just remove them from our surfaces. That’s all. And if you are not comfortable with that, then use natural disinfectants, such as white vinegar.
Or, you could use the good bacteria to help you get rid of the bad ones. You heard right. This is called probiotic cleaning.
The cleaner contains beneficial bacteria that eat the grease and dirt. And because you are adding a lot of them by using a probiotic cleaner, they will outcompete the bad bacteria.
And the best thing is, they will continue even when you have finished cleaning. I love my probiotic cleaner.
You see, we don’t need all these nasty chemicals to clean our home.
Conclusion: Are Environmentally Friendly Cleaning Products Effective?
Are environmentally friendly cleaning products effective? Yes they are.
Eco-friendly products will clean your home just as well as traditional house cleaners. You might have to put a bit more elbow grease and time in, but you get a clean house without damaging the environment or your health.
The ingredients used in natural cleaners have similar properties as the chemicals used in regular cleaning products.
But because they are milder, they are less likely to damage your surfaces. So while they might not necessarily clean better, natural cleaning products are effective.
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| Cleaning Products | Value For Money | Effectiveness | Ease Of Use | My Rating | Full Review | Official Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outstanding | Excellent | Great | 4.90/5 | Read Review | Visit Website |
| Outstanding | Excellent | Great | 4.90/5 | Read Review | Visit Website |
| Great | Outstanding | Excellent | 4.87/5 | Read Review | Visit Website |
