There are many cleaning products available today that claim to be earth friendly. This is important.
The products we wipe, pour and spray all over our homes everyday remain in our immediate environment, in the air we breathe and on the surfaces we touch, wear and eat off. Even those that are washed away do not vanish from the earth, but are ultimately released into our waterways, soils and oceans. The earth and all its systems is our home. Cleaning up one corner with products that sully, poison and pollute the rest, is surely not good housekeeping.
Many products appear to have solved this problem by being “biodegradable”. But what does this mean? Given enough time and the right conditions, essentially anything will eventually biodegrade – become thoroughly broken down by organisms and natural processes. However, the time needed can be years or centuries, and the right conditions seldom exist – and are increasingly becoming rarer as environments are degraded. The elements these “biodegradable” cocktails break down into, often cause massive imbalances in natural settings. In the end, many “non-toxic, biodegradable” products wreak havoc, especially in water systems. Ingredients that pride themselves on being “plant-based” are not necessarily harmless either. Intensive processing means that several harmful compounds can be synthesised from plant material.
The Apothecary ensures that all our Spotless Cleaning products truly are harmless or beneficial in the environment, immediately. All ingredients we use are considered safe for consumption, are used in foods and have medicinal uses. They biodegrade readily and quickly in nature, without any treatment or interventions needed, and into substances that are useful in soil and water and to the organisms that live and work in them. Unlike many other products that make this claim, ours really are earth friendly.
What’s more, all our products are packaged in plant material (paper and plant cellulose “plastic” that can be added to your compost heap), or in strong reusable, returnable and easily recyclable glass.