Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Do Your Dishes
From Mike B in NY.
Here’s the thing:
Use Environmentally Safe Cleaning Products
Making the changes necessary to protect the environment can seem an overwhelming 
chore. However, the reality is there are things we already do regularly, as part of daily routine, which can easily be made friendly to the environment.
Do you clean your apartment? Wash your dishes or clothes? Use toilet paper or tissues? I’m hoping the answer here is yes to at least some of these questions. If so, visit http://www.seventhgeneration.com/index.php and check out where you can get environmentally friendly detergent, dishwashing fluid, and paper products. All you have to do is enter your zip code and it will tell you where the nearest store is. The products aren’t very expensive and they are available at places like K-Mart, Target, and most supermarkets.
Making the switch is easy and it feels good to be doing the right thing.
on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 12:29 am:
I’ve seen the Seventh Generation TP in the supermarket but wondered if it’s really any more environmentally friendly than the stuff I buy (which says “100% paper from paper” — for whatever that’s worth). I mean the lovely green pictures are definitely inspiring, but what do we really know about what goes into these things?
I have a similar problem with eggs that claim to be “cage-free,” “cruelty-free,” “vegetarian,” etc etc etc. I’ve heard that chicken factories can qualify as “cage-free” even if they have thousands of birds cramped into one giant space. And “free range” can mean very little too.
It seems that a ton of companies say a lot of stuff on their labels that don’t actually mean anything significant (like “natural”).
The advice I’ve heard most often is “buy local.” Get to know a farm and their practices. But that’s not always practical, and a lot of stuff, like TP and diswashing detergent, don’t come from a farm. So does anybody know a trustworthy Web site where all these products are checked into and verified for real environmental and humanitarian issues?
on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 5:10 pm:
I’ve bene using Simple Green all purpose cleaner for a while and am very happy with it for my regular cleaning. They’ve come out with some new products it looks like. They claim a lot of the same things are Seventh Generation. I can buy a big jug of Simple Green from BJs or Target easily. I’m still working on my jug that is 3+ years old, and NO, that is not a sign of how little I clean
.
on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 4:49 pm:
turns out the Seventh Generation dishwashing detergent isn’t tested on animals either.