Green Your Kitchen
by Chris O'Hara
By Chris O’Hara
Although my wife Jennifer and I have been trying to get “greener” around the kitchen over the past few years (using the smaller, energy efficient drawer-style dishwasher more; recycling more; using CFLs instead of conventional light bulbs, etc), we weren’t 100% ready to commit to green cleaning products. For my recent canvas article, we put a variety of cleaning products to the test to see whether ammonia and bleach-free cleaning products would get the job done. For them to pass the “Jen test” they would have to be pretty tough.
I found a bunch of products I liked, but two that really stood out:
- Simple Green: They say that necessity is the mother of invention. In 1978, long before “green” products were on anyone’s radar, a man named FaBrizio was trying to figure out how to remove tannin from coffee roasting machines without using toxic chemicals. After three years, he came up with a biodegradable, nontoxic, non-abrasive solution he called Simple Green. He began to sell the product in 55-gallon drums to automobile shops and factories, and many years later, into consumer stores. Now the “Sunshine Makers” company has one of the most popular and diversified natural cleaning product lines in the world. I found the concentrated formula to be the most effective—and cost effective—of all the “green” cleaning products.
- Seventh Generation: Seventh Generation products include everything from chlorine-free baby diapers to recycled napkins, and everything in between. I wanted to see how the Ben and Jerry’s of household cleaning products handled the mess I created making Cincinnati chili. As the author of several popular cooking books, including one on chili, I feel obligated to cook in a manner that makes me look as talented as the pictures that accompany my recipes. In other words, to needlessly shake pans, toss ingredients up into the air, and make as much noise and mess as possible. Jen tells me that this doesn’t add anything to my cooking but, since I usually clean it up anyway, she abides my foolishness. But, would Seventh Generation’s “natural all-purpose cleaner” be up to the task of degreasing a very greasy Garland stove? I put 7G’s citrusy cleaner to the test against both Fantastic and my home-diluted mixture of Mr. Clean, and found that it held its own.
A month later, we are still working our way around the kitchen, and for the most part we have found that the green cleaners can do the job 9 times out of 10. With a third grade boy in the house, plenty of bleach-based products are still called upon for regular bathroom maintenance, however. That being said, with green surface cleaners, dishwashing detergent and soap, and even biodegradable laundry detergent, there are a lot of ways to avoid putting chemicals back into the ground. And that’s some “clean living” that’s really easy to do!
LINKS USED IN THIS ARTICLE:
http://www.greenhomeguide.com/index.php/knowhow/entry/649
http://www.fisherpaykel.co.nz/dishwashing/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp
http://www.seventhgeneration.com
http://www.ecookbooks.com/p-2168-ultimate-chili-book.aspx
http://transcendentalfloss.com/media/images/2006/mr-clean.jpg
5 comments
Chris,
Just finished reading your article in the latest edition and all I can say is if you’re the guy making the recommendations about how we should solve the global warming problems or problems related to toxic materials in the home then WE’RE SCREWED. You haven’t got a clue.
Some real ideas that actually make sense.
1- Get rid of your bottled water completely. Get a filter
2- Compost - The average home generates hundreds of pounds of food waste a month. Want to make a difference? Stop chucking it out - compost it instead (by the way you can also compost waste paper like the paper towel that you recommended that people not use which is actually a horrible idea. Studies have shown that sponges and rags in homes are the #1 source of germs in homes)
3- Change your diet. The average US diet is extremely inefficient. Meat, dairy are tremendously wasteful. Eat green to be green
Don
Don.
Thanks for your insightful comments. One of the missions of Canvas is to inform people interested in sustainability about some of the initiatives they can take to make the world a better place. Not all of our readers are as committed as yourself. That being said, I think I tried to offer to pretty easy (and do-able) suggestions that people will actually try.
While I respect your personal dietary lifestyle choice, going vegan isn’t something I would recommend to our readers in the context of a service article on general kitchen maintainence. Likewise, your suggestion to switch to water filters cannot be recommended in light of the recent news about pharmaceutical residue in our drinking water; commercially available home water filters do not filter out the particulates that were cited as risk factors.
Composting, however, is something that Canvas has always been a strong advocate of, and we have reported on periodically. Any suggestions you may have would be warmly welcomed! Thanks for reading!
Chris
I’m curious how Clorox’s Green Works rates. I started buying their products in my first babysteps into a better lifestyle. I’m the typical American consumer and it may just be the hype-machine trying to convince me, see we’re making it better, but it’s a start. As to what Don says, I agree but he could be less aggressive. More Eco and less warrior.
And excuse my denseness, but what do I do with a composte heap? I believe more than 45 percent of my son’s room constitutes the definition but I’m afraid to look.
I’m currently growing herbs (actual plants, crazy right) myself. I check on my little green babies every day. I’m not sure if they see me as Mother Theresa or Hannibal Lecter but they’re still in the tentative stage. Would compost be useful for them?
Confessions of newly-discovered hippie….Must be all the tie-dye in New Paltz
Philbe:
I liked the Green Works a lot, actually. I thought the SimpleGreen was a bit cheaper and more powerful, but my wife really didn’t love the smell. The Seventh Generation probably had the best smelling stuff. Honestly, they all work pretty well. When the kids are sick, or I am cleaning up a dog accident, I generally use a conventional cleaner that has antibacterial cleaning power but, for everyday cleaning, the natural cleaners are just as good.
Chris
Hi Chris,
I liked your article on greening your kitchen. One thing was suspiciously absent from the section on building materials. Concrete countertops and sinks. We fabricate concrete here in Huntington. Concrete is green! Check out the article on our blog about why this is so. http:/concretecentral.blogspot.com
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