Whether you run a commercial or domestic cleaning company, or you're extremely house proud. Eco-friendly cleaning products should be at the top of your priority when it comes to keeping spaces clean and hygienic. Sustainable cleaning services and products are set to become an even bigger trend that is here to stay. If you're not adopting these practices into your cleaning company, you are going to get left behind.
For too long, toxic chemicals reigned supreme on the supermarket shelves and throughout the cleaning industry. These products have caused so much damage to our environment over the decades and we as a nation continue to pour them into vulnerable eco-systems, particularly rivers and lakes.
A study conducted by Wildlife and Countryside Link https://www.wcl.org.uk/chemical-pollution-the-silent-killer-of-uk-rivers.asp - concluded:
Chemical cocktails, that have been proven harmful to wildlife in scientific studies, have been found in 814 river and lake sites (out of 1,006 sites with data – 81% ) and 805 groundwater sites (out of 1,086 sites with data – 74%) across England.
Over half (54%) of these sites contained three or more of the five harmful chemical cocktails investigated.
Up to 101 chemicals were identified in river samples, with sites along the rivers Mersey, Stour, Colne, Thames, Trent, Yare, Irwell, Medway, Humber and Avon among those containing the highest numbers of chemicals. The actual numbers of chemical pollutants will be even higher.
The chemical cocktails found across the 1,619 sites contained six different chemicals in five different hazardous mixtures. These included four toxic forever chemicals PFOS, PFOA, PFBS and PFHxS, the pesticide 2,4-D and the commonly used painkiller ibuprofen (see table below for more detail).
Despite the rise and popularity of eco-friendly cleaning chemicals and other sustainable materials and packaging. Not all of these products are made equal, and many of them 'greenwash' their claims of sustainability. If you're ever choosing a product and you're not sure which one to purchase, always default to ones with an EU Ecolabel certification on the packaging. This certification is your guarantee that the product is 100% eco-friendly, fully biodegradable and made in a sustainable supply chain from start to finish. Some eco chemicals actually become more toxic when they start breaking down in the environment which is the complete opposite of the desired result.
Greenwashing has unfortunately become a popular trend in the last couple of years, 2023 saw several scandals including Elf Bar advertising their disposable vape products as recyclable when they cannot be recycled. As a consequence they were ordered by TfL to take down the advertising and cannot advertise in the same format again. This highlights the problems consumers and cleaning companies face when knowing which cleaning chemicals to purchase due to advertisers misleading claims. This is why we advise everyone to always choose an EU Ecolabel certified product, and we are going to campaign for all cleaning chemicals and materials to require this certification in the future.
Thankfully a new directive has come into effect in Europe that will have an impact in the UK despite our country leaving the union. The greenwashing directive sets out rules that organisations must follow in relation to any claims made on the sustainability of their product(s). We believe the UK will likely introduce a similar directive especially given the context of recent scandals such as the Elf Bar greenwashing claims on TfL buses as discussed above.
In conclusion, eco-friendly chemicals and sustainable materials are the future and all of us should adopt greener practices in everything we do. It's our collective responsibility to hold ourselves and companies accountable for the impact we and they have on the environment. We also need to be aware of greenwashing claims and be diligent when making purchases. Cleaníge will continue to advise consumers and report on these types of issues as part of our mission to help rehabilitate damage to eco-systems caused by pollution and climate change. We only have one planet, this isn't a rehearsal, make the change to eco-friendly today.
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