So, before I begin another post about the wonders of cleaning green, I wanted to touch on the use of the word “green” itself and how it gets used in less than satisfactory ways by companies to convince you to buy their product. When I peruse the store aisles for green labeled products it is very inviting to simply pick up the first bottle or box with a tree or swath of greenery and flowers on it. Upon closer inspection, many of these items stop being “green” once the packaging is stripped away. From simple trial and error this is what I have discovered about the differences between “real” and “fake” green products: its all on the label. Turn over that bottle or box and look for an ingredient list. If there isn’t one, its safe to say that you would not be happy with what is in it. If you turn it over and do find a list, read it. Sure, there are going to be ingredients that you don’t have a Wikipedia-sized knowledge of but what would you rather clean with?
Water, Organic Coconut Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Organic Olive Oil, Tea Tree Extract, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Citric Acid, Tocopherol
OR
Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Decyl Glucoside, Fragrance, DMDM Hydantoin, Sodium Chloride, PEG-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Sulfate, Polyquaternium-7, Citric Acid, Poloxamer 124, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, D&C Red No. 33, FD&C No. 1
The first soap is the tea tree oil variety of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps and the second is a common brand of hand soap. I can’t make any claims against the ingredients in the second hand soap. I have read a pretty large chunk of text that lists out various toxic compounds and chemicals that are used to produce everyday household materials. Its a disturbing thought and I vote to use the kind of products whose ingredients are simple and straight forward, to me that is one of the definitions of “green.”
Consider another angle to the concept of a “green” product. I have been out and about reading articles and blogs that concern this topic. Something I see a lot of is the idea that what may be directly “green” and beneficial for your home and family-such as a kitchen cleaner that doesn’t require an additional rinsing to make the surface food safe-may continue to contribute to other environmental issues such as non-recyclable packaging or the use of non-renewable resources to produce the product. It ends up being a lot to think about when turning your life green! More posts on this in the future, I want to do a little more research on how people handle this balancing act.
Adventures in Green from the Emerald City 
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