Household cleaners
Personal shopping guide to household cleaners, from Ethical Consumer

Personal shopping guide to household cleaners, from Ethical Consumer


This is a product guide from Ethical Consumer, the UK's leading alternative consumer organisation. Since 1989 we've been researching and recording the social and environmental records of companies, and making the results available to you in a simple format.

This buyers' guide is part of a Special Report on Cleaning Products.  See what's in the rest of the report.

This buyers' guide to Household Cleaners includes:

  • Ethical and environmental ratings for 43 popular household cleaners
  • Best Buy recommendations
  • A look at what nasty ingredients lurk within our household cleaning products
  • Microfibre cloths

 

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Score Ratings

Our ratings are live updated scores from our primary research database. They are based on primary and secondary research across 19 categories. Find out more about our ethical ratings. 

 

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Best Buys

as of May/June 2012


As our ratings are constantly updated, it is possible that company ratings on the score table may have changed since this report was written.


Bio-D and Faith in Nature are the clear best buys.

They are followed by Earth Friendly Products, eco2life, Ecoleaf, Ecozone, Lilly’s Eco Clean, Bentley Organics, Sodasan and Sonett.

For making your own, Dri Pak score well on the table.

All these brands are available online or from some health food shops.

The best scoring widely available green brand is Ecover because of their company-wide approach to using green ingredients and they are certified cruelty-free.

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May/June 2012

 

Household cleaners

Supermarket shelves are full of rows and rows of different cleaners for different household jobs, all seemingly with different formulations specially devised for the job, but in reality, most cleaners contain the same basic ingredients. One all-purpose cleaner will do most of the cleaning jobs around the home.

The score table covers all purpose, kitchen, bathroom, oven, carpet and floor cleaners, disinfectant and bleach brands.

 


Toxic ingredients

 

Chlorine bleach (aka sodium hypochlorite) – disinfectant or whitener in cleaners and fabric bleaches. It is a corrosive chemical; toxic if ingested; eye and respiratory irritant, can irritate the lungs and eyes and in waterways can become toxic organochlorines. If mixed with acids such as ammonia it can release chloramine gas which can result in death.(6)

Disinfectants and antibacterials - See 'The danger of antimicrobials'.

Surfactants and perfumes - see the Laundry Detergents buyers' guide.

 

 

Microfibre cloths

 

Microfibre cloths are made from millions of polyester and nylon micro-fibres and clean with just water, no detergents. When dry, the cloths have a natural ‘positive’ charge that attracts dust. They can be used for all cleaning jobs, including washing-up, and work by breaking up and holding dirt, grease and bacteria, even thick grease and dirt.

The most well-known brand is the E-Cloth from EnviroProducts (score 12) but Ecozone, who appear in this report and score 14.5, also make them.

We weren’t able to find any negative reviews about the cleaning performance of E-Cloths. The only downside is that E-Cloth also produce an antibacterial cloth which “incorporates natural nano-silver to kill bacteria caught in the cloth”. (See 'The danger of antimicrobials')

Tested as a window cleaner by Which? in January 2007 they concluded “The E-cloth produced slightly better results than its cheaper rival, requiring little polishing. It’s reusable up to 300 washes, so is good value.”

 

 

References

 

6 What’s in this stuff? Pat Thomas, 2006

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