Caring for the environment and living green is an investment that many individuals are making for their own and their children’s health and wellness. Everyday I meet people and learn about companies who are doing their part to eliminate practices that harm the earth, and inevitably, human and animal life. This week on Green Mamma we meet David Webster, founder of the web-site Healthier-cleaning-products.com.

David’s objective at Healthier-cleaning-products.com is to educate consumers about the consequences of selecting harmful and toxic household products versus those that are not only good for planet earth but are good for your home and family too. Here’s a little bit about David and his family, as well as a few insightful tips on how to clean green for a healthier earth and family:

1. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. David says that the 3 Rs are the “easiest ways” for his family to protect and preserve the earth. He comments, “It’s almost to the point of only buying products packaged in recyclable containers.”  Purchasing products in recyclable packaging not only allows consumers to recycle, but it also reduces waste (just think about all those #5 or #7 plastic containers that many waste collectors do not recycle).

Recycling newspapers and plastics are an easy way to get our children involved in saving the planet too.  David says that his 8 year-old daughter Marlaina loves to help him and his wife Mary Jo with their recycling efforts.

2. Wear your favorite threads more than once.  David’s family tries to wear their clothing more than one time before tossing items into the laundry.  In addition, this green family hangs their laundry outside to dry, which minimizes dryer use and saves energy.

3.  Plant a tree.  Last Spring, David and his family gave Mamma Earth a wonderful gift when they added 12 new trees to their yard.   Trees not only keep our air fresh by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, but in a single year, a tree absorbs the amount of carbon produced by a car that has driven 8700 miles!  For more fun facts about trees, visit Trees Are Good.

4.  Grow, grow, grow organic! David and his family maintain an organic vegetable and fruit garden, which they fertilize with rich soil made from their home compost.  Organic gardening is a wonderful way for parents and their children to connect with nature and create beauty together.  David’s daughter Marlaina not only helps her parents with their own organic garden but she maintains her own vegetable garden too!

An added bonus to organic gardening?  The local soil and water supply is kept clean and uncontaminated by the chemicals that are often used in yards and gardens, which can have adverse effects on the health of children, pets, and wildlife.   Visit Mostly Organic Gardening for more information about growing your own organic garden.

5.  Eat green.  One of the easiest ways that David, Mary Jo, and Marlaina take action on behalf of the environment is to purchase organic, natural foods and to educate themselves about the ingredients in their food.  David comments, “[Marlaina] likes to go food shopping with  . . . Mary Jo and attempts to read ingredient labels.”  Sadly, the wording on food labels is sometimes misleading.  For example, a product that claims to be made “with real fruit” is not necessarily a nutritious choice, nor is it one that is good for the environment.  To learn more about deciphering food labels, visit Dr. Sear’s “Learning About Food Packaging Labels.”

6.  Love your pet and Mamma Earth!  David says that his pets Tippy the Cat and Hartley the Dog are not recycling, yet =), but that both pets are going green.  Tippy uses a wheat litter, and both Tippy and Hartley eat all natural pet food that is made without unhealthy byproducts.

7.   Clean up your green act!  David’s family chooses green cleaning products and personal care products.  Their favorites include Melaleuca personal care, laundry, and dishwasher soaps.  For his carpet cleaning business, David chooses Green Seal Certified products by Procyon.  According to the Procycon web-site, their soap and odor free products are hypo-allergenic, non-toxic, with no VOCS and off gassing.

Below is one of David’s homemade recipes for a vinegar cleaner that eliminates pet odors:

Make your own “white vinegar” by diluting acetic acid in water. Dilute 1 ounce with a quart of warm water. Keep this mixture as a cleaner and as a first step to neutralizing animal urine in your carpet. Be very careful of the acetic acid concentrate as it can cause skin burns. Please keep this and all cleaning products out of the reach of all children.

David’s work to protect people and the environment from nasty chemicals is admirable.  Here’s a little bit more about how chemicals in cleaning products effect our health, homes, and the environment.  David writes:

Let me begin by asking “why should we be concerned about the cleaning products utilized in our indoor environment”? There are a couple of different answers to this question.

First is the issue of detergent residue, the film that is left behind by cleaning chemicals. How often have you spilled something on your carpet and reached for either a commercial cleaning product or perhaps you made your own with a little dish detergent and water. It seemed to clean but within a short time the spot is back, darker and larger than before.

You retreat it and that little spot continues to grow many times its original size. This is detergent residue and it will attract dirt like a magnet. This cycle will repeat unless the residue is completely rinsed. Unfortunately detergent residue cannot be completely rinsed. Let me illustrate with a couple of examples:

The average washing machine uses two rinse cycles to remove the dirt and detergent. Take a washed and rinsed article of clothing and place in a small bucket of clear water. Squeeze and squish the garment several times in the water. The foam that appears is detergent residue.

Similarly, why do hot tub retailers sell defoamer? To control the foam caused by detergent residue from the bathing suits of the hot tub users.

The examples given here involve laundry detergent but it is the same with carpet cleaning products. To clean your carpet and not be able to rinse out the detergent can be likened to shampooing your hair and not rinsing the shampoo out.

Worse yet, this detergent residue is in constant contact with, and it is absorbed into your body through the skin. If you took a fresh moist piece of garlic, and rubbed it on the soles of your feet today, by tomorrow, you would taste the garlic.

The feet are very porous and can absorb pollutants or chemicals. Many people walk around their home in bare feet or allow their children to crawl or play on their carpet. The skin will absorb toxic cleaning chemicals found in the carpet.

To stop cleaning your carpet or remove all carpet from your home is not the answer. In fact, many people concerned with allergies, remove their carpeting with the assumption hard flooring is healthier. I question this thinking. Have you ever noticed “dust bunnies” fly around the room by the air current that closing a door creates. Any allergens are in constant motion.

Your carpet on the other hand functions as a giant filter in your home. It traps many contaminants, pollutants and allergens which can then be removed by cleaning. This in turn helps keep your indoor air quality at its best.

One of the simplest lines of defense to improve your indoor air quality is to vacuum your carpet, hard flooring, mattresses and upholstery often. Have your home furnishings professionally cleaned twice yearly, particularly, if pets share your indoor environment.

As the popularity of the “green movement” grows, it seems that cleaning product manufacturers are labeling everything green whether it’s truly green or not. Until uniform standards for cleaning products are established, insist that your carpet cleaner use Green Seal Certified Products (www.greenseal.org).

This Green Seal certification qualifies a product as green. To further safeguard your health, indoor air quality and the environment, allow only the use of detergent-free, non-toxic cleaning products. Choose those which are odor free, hypo-allergenic and do not contain volatile organic compounds (VOC’s)   www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html.

A document to check most cleaning products is the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). This is a detailed informational document prepared by the manufacturer or importer of hazardous chemicals. It describes the physical and chemical properties of the product.

Although this document is geared more for the occupational user, it can benefit the building occupant as well. The MSDS includes the name of the chemical (same as on the label), a listing of the ingredients, a statement of the ingredients that are known carcinogens, or that present other known hazards, and any specific hazards.

I hope this information is of help to anyone in search of the “real dirt” on any cleaning solution that you may consider utilizing for your carpet cleaning needs. The increase in children experiencing allergies, asthma, chemical sensitivities and even comprised immune systems is alarming. Our lifestyle of plastic and chemical based products is a major contributor. I wanted to give the public a tool to help make informed decisions when choosing cleaning products.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 7:34 am and is filed under Baby, Green Friends, Green Living, Health and Nutrition, Pets, Take Action Tidbit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.