Last week we found out that many popular household cleaners have hidden toxic chemicals. Tide Free & Gentle, Simple Green Naturals, Glade Touch Odor, Clorox Clean Up, Bounce Free & Sensitive and multiple air fresheners made the list of products tested and were found to have carcinogens, reproductive toxins, endocrine disruptors and allergens.
We own them, now know they’re toxic and want to get rid of them. What do we do?
After hearing about the report, many Groovy Green Livin readers contacted me letting me know that they were switching to green, non-toxic cleaners and some were even attempting to make their own (the greenest option out there!). Now the question becomes what to do with all the old, toxic cleaners taking up unwanted space in our cupboards and cabinets.
Here’s what NOT to do with toxic cleaners:
- DON’T flush them. Flushing toxins down your toilet could potentially contaminate waterways.
- DON’T pour them down the drain. These toxins could end up polluting a river, lake or stream.
- DON’T dump them in your yard. They will end up poisoning plants, animals and you.
- DON’T throw them away in the trash or recycle bin. It’s actually illegal to throw hazardous waste in with your trash. They will end up in a landfill where they leak into the soil and air.
- DON’T burn them. This could cause poisonous fumes, a dangerous explosion and air pollution.
Here are a few tips to help you safely dispose of toxic cleaning supplies:
- Treat cleaning supplies as hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is any product that is poisonous or toxic, can catch on fire or could mix with other chemicals and cause an explosion or dangerous reaction.
- Check in with Earth911.com for disposal rules in your area. Just type in your zip and your options will appear. I typed in “household cleaners” and my zip code. A number of hazardous waste collection programs came up.
- Many cities and towns have regular collection days or local collection sites that can take the toxics off your hands and dispose of them properly. Contact your local Department of Public Works for more options.
If you want to know what’s in your cleaning supplies make your own!
My favorite ingredients for DIY cleaners are:
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Water
- Tea tree oil
- Castile soap
What are some of your favorite DIY home cleaner recipes?
[Photo used under Creative Commons from Terrance S. Jones/Flickr]
I hope more people can wake up and realize if you have to treat it as hazardous waste, you shouldn’t be wiping your baby’s high chair with it!
Something else infuriating about conventional cleaners and their so-called green versions is the fact that — According to the Global Green Brands study, which was released in July 2009, the 10 green brands as ranked by US consumers were: Clorox Green Works, Burt’s Bees, Tom’s of Maine, S.C. Johnson & Son, Toyota, P&G, Wal-Mart, Ikea, Disney and Dove.
This is a great post because so many people do not know how to dispose of these products correctly. I have just done a post on making some of your own cleaning products.
The closest place to dispose of these for me is almost 15 miles from my house. And it is only open from the beginning of May through the end of October. I will keep my eye out for a more local event.
I do not have any of my own recipes to share but I did find an article on the earth911 site that has some additional ideas using some of the ingredients you mentioned.
Yikes, some people burn their cleaning products? Scary. So far we’ve been lucky here in Toronto to have Community Environment Days where hazardous waste is one of many types of unwanted items residents can hand over for proper disposal. Up until this year, there was one of these events per year per City ward, so 44 in total. In a few weeks Council will be voting on whether or not to scrunch that number down to 11… all in the name of saving money (while destroying the environment). The green shade of our city is fading with our new mayor. 🙁
These are great tips. I will admit that in the past, I bought a lot of products that said they were green when they really weren’t and I feel angry about it–I consider myself an educated consumer, and it’s hard to believe that brands are able to misrepresent themselves like that. Anyway, I’ve kept these products under the kitchen sink just because I didn’t know how to dispose of them, so this post is really helpful.
Great post Lori. It is good to remember to treat these as household hazardous waste – which is scary as Amity Hook-Sopko pointed out in her comment.
I LOVE making my own cleaners. I have an all purpose cleaners I use – 2 cups water, ½ cup distilled white vinegar, 1 tsp castile soap, 10 drops lavender, 10 drops lemongrass, 10 drops lemon.
I use Hydrogen peroxide to disinfect (I just put a spray top on the bottle.)
I also use a combination or water, castille soap and tea tree oil in a foaming dispenser for hand soap.
Here are some of my other favorites: http://thegreeningofwestford.blogspot.com/2011/01/homemade-green-cleaners-made-easy.html
Interesting Amity! Those brands are certainly not green in my eyes. What did the Global Green Brands study use to determine that these brands were green? I agree, frightening to think some of these household products are used on babies and then disposed of as hazardous waste.
I’m surprised there isn’t something closer to you Marsha. It also seems strange that it’s not open year round. I would check in with your city/town to see if they have a local collection date. Hopefully they do!
Thank you Alicia. I’m going to head on over to your awesome blog to check out your DIY cleaning products!
Hi Andrea-I think some people don’t realize how flammable cleaning products are. I’m not sure they intentionally burn them-who knows??!! I’m hoping that Toronto maintains its greeness and doesn’t do away with the number of hazardous waste drop off days. Keep me posted.
Hi Kristina! Thanks so much for sharing your DIY cleaner recipes. I’m going to have to try your all purpose cleaner, it’s a bit different then mine. I like that you add lemongrass and lemon.
Thanks K! It is so frustrating to rely on marketing and then come to find out that the products really aren’t green at all. It’s greenwashing. That’s why the Safe Chemicals Act needs to pass! Hopefully you will be able to find a local drop off spot to dispose of your cleaners.
I use NORWEX microfiber cloths and water for most of my cleaning needs. They offer amazing products!
Thanks for sharing Jennifer. I haven’t tried their products. I use microfiber clothes for cleaning also.
I use 1 part vinegar to 3 or 4 parts water with 1 lemon and some tea tree or lavender drops for surfaces. Then I use 2 parts vinegar to 3 or 4 parts water with 1 lemon essential oil of lemon grass for floors. The lemongrass is very astringent and leaves a fresh scent. These have worked well and the vinegar smell dissipates within minutes. I have an infant so I am not worried about her ingesting trace amounts of toxic chemicals by crawling.
Thank you for this post! I was so happy to clean my home of all these icky ingredients, but didn’t want the alternative to be I’m dumping them back into our environment. I wish I had done this sooner (or never purchased these things to begin with) but we live, we learn. Now I’m trying to share some greener cleaning recommendations with my extended family so that the products we’ve always used (and that I had under my cupboards) will become the products we used to use.
I’m going to show my wife this article because she’s not good at disposing of toxic waste. Thanks for the clear list of what not to do with toxic cleaners. My wife loves to pour them down the drain. I keep telling her it’s wrong, maybe this article can change her mind!
The tip to check earth911 to see the rules where you live for disposing of hazardous waste is really helpful. I wouldn’t have thought to treat some cleaning supplies as hazardous, but it definitely makes sense with things such as pesticides and heavy duty cleaners. It’s a great idea not to dispose of anything with chemicals in your yard because you don’t want any animals to get hurt.
Getting rid of toxic chemicals is so difficult but its important to take the time to get rid of them properly to keep the environment safe. It definitely is better to use as many natural cleaners as you can too!
Hi Lori , thanks so much for the post .
I just went on a cleaner rampage in my house as I live with my mom and I cannot get her to see the dangers of these chemicals . So I did what my heart told me and bought a half gallon of Dr Bronners castile soap, and took all the cleaners, fragrances, soaps, disinfectants and shampoos and put them all in a big plastic bag and hid them in my basement because I knew I couldn’t just throw them away.
I then proceeded to concoct my own disinfectant cleaners and here’s what I use to get a truly disinfecting all natural cleaner:
Prerequisites:
*Castile Soap. I will always reccomend Dr. Bronners.
*Tea-Tree oil
*Spring Water
*PURE oregano oil. Expensive but it’s what disinfects. I recommend Telia oils.
3 parts spring water , 1 part castile soap, 10 drops tea tree oil, 1-3 DROPS of PURE oregano oil. If it’s diluted you’ll have to figure out the measurements yourself as it is usually extremely diluted in a carrier oil due to its potency . CAUTION ** THE PURE OIL IS VERY POTENT AND MAY BURN YOUR SKIN. Use no more than 3 drops or else you want your countertops to smell strongly of oregano . You won’t notice an oregano smell as long as you use 1-3 drops!
My mom is out of town but hopefully she comes back and is more relieved than angry but I guess I’ll see soon enough! Hopefully this can be of use to someone
Hi Anthony! Thank you for sharing so much great information. Congrats on the cleaning rampage! I’m curious to hear what your mom thought when she came home.
Tea Tree Oil is very toxic to humans and animals. Just found out it 100% pure doesn’t require the necessary hazard labels. Yikes! Please remove from your safe list.
My favorite cleaners are the ENJO fibers and water, I never have to worry about harmful ingredients, everyone in the family can use them and they are easy and efficient to use. I’ll never go back to using any other product again!
Hey Lori,
Thanks for sharing this. Short and sharp … but the Earth911 suggestion is a massive timesaver.
I never really thought much of disposal that way, but it does make sense to dispose of hazardous material the right way!
Sean