Cleaning your House without Ruining the Environment

As people are becoming aware of the health-hazards of phosphate-based cleaners, they are seeking new ways to clean their homes.  For most cleaning jobs all you need is a box of baking soda, a bottle of vinegar, and a lemon.  And when that’s not enough, there are always other Green Cleaning options

Baking soda has many uses.  Sprinkle baking soda on your carpet and let sit for 15 minutes, then vacuum away odors.  Add ¼ cup to extra dirty laundry to remove grease and freshen clothes.  Sprinkle on sinks and tubs and use a wet sponge to gently scrub away stains.

Vinegar kills mold, bacteria and germs and is a great way to avoid using dangerous chemicals where you prepare food.  Pour straight vinegar into a spray bottle for shower cleaning.  Spray onto grout and scrub with an old toothbrush to remove stains.  Spray your shower door before each shower to prevent hard water stains.  Clean your drains by pouring 1 cup of baking soda and 1 cup of hot vinegar down the drain.  Let bubble for 5 minutes and rinse away.

The acid in lemons can be used as a substitute for bleach.  Squeeze a lemon on a tough counter-top stain and let stand for 5 minutes.  You may need to scrub really tough stains with a little baking soda and a toothbrush, then just rinse with water.  Squeeze a lemon on a t-shirt stain and let dry in the sun.  The next time you wash the shirt, the stain will be history. 

Eco-Friendly Car Washes

Washing your car is a true green dilemma.  Conventional commercial car washes like the big ones you drive through as huge mops swoosh chemicals around on your car seem bad because they waste water, electricity, and land.  The truth is, theses car washes use only 45 gallons of water per wash and are required to trap the runoff, keeping all those chemicals out of the storm drains and ground water.

Then there’s the do-it-yourself pressure hose kind of car wash.  You put quarters in the machine and hose the car down yourself, flipping the switch to choose different soaps.  This way uses the least amount of water, traps run-off, and you determine how long the electricity runs for.  These places don’t normally have the same flashing signs as the big carwashes, nor the air conditioned waiting room, so for commercial washes, these are probably the best.

Most people think that washing your car at home is a greener alternative, especially if you park the car on the grass.  Using your hose to wash your car can use between 80 and 140 gallons of water.  That’s a lot of water.  If you don’t use biodegradable, safe soap, then you may be contaminating ground water.  In some cities, it illegal to put “anything but rain in a storm drain” and your car wash dirt and soap soup is no exception.  If you learn to do this with less water and better soap, it’s a great way to wash your car.

Green Products Are Popular Today. Be Careful.

Today, everyone seems to be going green from carwashes and hamburger stands, to attorneys and housekeeping services. These products and services cost more, no doubt about it, but are they green?  The marketing firms they pay big bucks to certainly make the claim, and we feel guilty passing by the opportunity to help cool the planet with a cheeseburger and fries, but are we really helping?

Eco-activists in California have had enough of this green washing and have introduced legislation that would force companies to offer free written information to back up their claims.  If a car dealership offers to offset your carbon footprint of your new purchase by planting trees in the Amazon, they may have to show you the paper trail that proves it.  After all, would you have bought that car, cheeseburger, or house cleaner if it was just normal?  Many eco-minded consumers said no, and they are trying to do something about it.

“Green washing” is the term environmentalists give this sort of half-true, guilt-ridden marketing.  Even if that burger was made from free-range, organic corn-fed beef, if it’s served up in a Styrofoam container and there aren’t recycling bins, then it isn’t really green.  Biodegradable housecleaners in non-recyclable plastic containers aren’t really green.  Swapping out one wasteful act for another is not green, and savvy activists in California are going to make sure consumers know it.

Even The AC In This City Is Eco-Friendly

On the Western edge of the Black Forest in Germany is a city called Freiberg.  The farmers that live here in Germany’s sunniest area protested and prevented nuclear power plants from being built in 1975.  They refused to have nuclear power plants along the beautiful Rhine River, and instead solved their own energy demands.

The farmers of Freiberg decided to try and harness clean energy from sun, wind and water.  Citizens worked out a deal with the government where they feed the power grid with their solar panels for about 45 cents a kilowatt hour, and can buy the energy back for only 20 cents.  Energy is greener and electric bills are lower.

158 soccer fans even paid for solar panels at the local stadium, and the stadium has been renamed to the Badenova Solar Soccer Stadium.  These solar panels generate hot water for their showers and Jacuzzis, but most of the energy is sold back to the grid.  The town is so dedicated to being green that developers that don’t include green aspects in their projects, don’t get their permits quickly.  The town center is a car-free zone.  There are 380 miles of bike lanes and public transportation options like rail and bus.  6.5 million passengers ride the metro rail line. 

Several hotels are “zero-emissions” meaning they use no more energy than they create with their solar panels and windmills.  No pre-packaged foods, no toxic phosphate cleaning products, dual flush toilets, even the ac is green.