The Real Dirt on Clean
- Surfaces chemically cleaned are not as clean as when steam cleaned. The world's most knowlegable germ experts at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta recommend steam as the number one method for sanitizing solid surfaces. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5217a4.htm
- Chemicals leave too many germs alive. Dr Robison, a microbiologist reports steam cleans more effectively than any chemical application and can sanitize surfaces in 2 seconds...some popular disposble disinfecting wipes take 4 minutes to kill 99% of the germs
- Labor intensive and time consuming.
- Petroleum based cleaners leave a film that attracts dirt.
- Chemicals are not healthy and they make us sick.
- Very expensive.
- We buy and try all these new chemicals, don't get the results we hoped for and end up tossing them away filling our landfills.
- Did you know it's unlawful to toss cleaning chemicals into the trash because they are considered toxic waste?
- Big corporations develop a plethora of new disposable products that we end up using and tossing filling our landfills even more.
- 100's of millions of $$$ is spent on advertising these new products and 0 $$$ spent on teaching you to use them.
- Mother Earth is staggering under millions of tons of toxic waste.
"Tell me if you've found what I've found...I have visited lots of websites and blogs, read a bunch of articles about cleaning green and keep finding the same stuff. I'm told to clean with baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, etc and frankly, I'm baffled. How do you find "green clean" in that? Yes, it's found in nature so it's not a harsh toxic chemical.
However all these products still involve production, packaging, shipping, advertising, hard manual labor when you get them home and then you have to dispose of the waste and the packaging that must be recycled or (heaven forbid!) added to the landfill. In my book, that's about as un-green as chlorine, ammonia, or any other synthetic chemical that we all admit is not very environmentally responsible. I'm glad so many of us are starting to think about what we're consuming and looking for greener alternatives but we can't stop at "natural" and think it's "green."
If you are serious about a sustainable (not a disposable) cleaning alternative may I suggest a good steam cleaner and microfiber products. You buy it once, use it for decades and the ONLY thing you consume is water. I can recommend Sargent Steam for both. The nice surprise is that your stuff gets way cleaner with steam (super heated water) than it ever did with any kind of chemical or natural alternative. I think the coolest part is that steaming is a blast! Did you ever think anyone would tell you that cleaning is actually fun?"