Just like being careful of what you put in your body, you should be careful what you put in your home. Cleaning is essential to keeping your home looking great and smelling pleasant. But you just make sure it is a safe space in which to live.
That means you must make sure you are using the right ingredients to protect your home and those living in it. It is, therefore, vital you do not fall for greenwashing techniques!
What Is Greenwashing?
Greenwashing is when a manufacturer advertises a product as natural and good for the environment when in reality, this is not true. The purpose is usually to divert negative attention from their products and their impact on the environment by giving themselves a pat-on-the-back for having so-called “natural ingredients” in their solutions.
How to Avoid Greenwashing
In order to avoid being greenwashed by big companies, it’s important to educate yourself on what greenwashing is and what steps to take to protect your home and environment. If you don’t, you could be polluting the air you breathe and causing health problems for the people and pets at your residence.
There is nowhere that demands more of your care and concern than your own home. You want to know that the air you breathe inside your home is clean and safe.
- DO YOUR RESEARCH - The best way to not get scammed by greenwashers is to be aware of what’s how the practice is being used against you. Before you buy anything to use in your home, do your homework on the manufacturer selling it, the ingredients in the product, and the product itself. If you see a reputable label on a product, such as The Carbon Trust Standard and Fair Trade Certified, it is a good sign the product is as advertised.
- ADVERTISING - The package is a trap. Just like the toddler who begs their parents to buy cereal, they’ll never eat just for the characters on the packaging; the outside appearance of cleaning products can be deceiving. Don’t be fooled by green packaging or fancy slogans. The ingredients are what actually matter.
- LEARN GREENWASH LANGUAGE - Familiarize yourself with the words used to deceive people into believing products are clean and safe. Learn the buzzwords and look for them in advertising and product designs. If a cleaning supply uses words such as eco-friendly, healthy, ethical, or earth essentials, they should be taken with a grain of salt. Refer back to number one and do your research rather than accepting what the manufacturer says about their own products.
- SAVE ON CLEANING SUPPLIES - Who said you needed to buy cleaning products? There are plenty of homemade cleaning solutions you can make with ingredients you know. If you know what to use, you can make the most of genuinely natural ingredients. You can then be confident that what you’re using is not polluting your air. We wrote more about natural cleaning supplies here.
- KNOWING WHAT TO AVOID - If you make your own homemade cleaning solution, you should have knowledge of what ingredients to avoid using. Some ingredients have been linked to creating or advancing health problems and should not be used to clean your home. Here are some ingredients you should not use:
- Antibacterial
- Ammonia
- Chlorine
- Perchloroethylene
- Phthalates
- Quaternary Ammonium Compounds
- Sodium Hydroxide
When you make your own homemade cleaning solutions and check diligently before purchasing products, you are helping to protect the air you breathe. You can always check with EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning to research other ingredients to make sure they are green, and you aren’t being greenwashed by the cleaning supply companies.
Professional Cleaning in Your Home
Now that you know a little bit about greenwashing and the dangers of being duped by it, you can make sure you are not greenwashed! At Greenlife Professional Cleaning, we are here to be in your corner as you fight for the health of your environment.
The team at Greenlife Professional Cleaning are home cleaning experts that can make your residence look immaculate and give it life. Most importantly, we can help make your house a safe, healthy environment in which to live by using the right ingredients and cleaning products.
To learn more about how we can help you, visit our about page to get to know who we are and what we do. For all your cleaning needs, Greenlife Professional Cleaning is here for you. Contact us today for a free estimate.