It’s the very last day of March, and my last opportunity to speak to green in honor of St Patrick’s Day, this months theme.

It’s at this time of the year, when April turns into MORE spring showers, that I wear an additional hat of advocacy and start talking about being green.

I marvel at how the green awareness level has spiraled to an ultimate high. Green is SO in. Green is SO trend and yet to some, green is still weird.

When I was detoxing my household and laundry products within my home I was not the norm, as a matter of  fact I was the odd woman out. So many people told me to “let it go”, it’s not a big deal. Yet to me it wasn’t only a big deal, it meant everything to me.

I saw these companies producing products that caused harm, caused harm to me, my kids and to the environment.  My ideals were going against giant manufaturers, going against generations of Tide, Clorox and Cascade users – how could those products be bad people would say, how could and would any of these companies produce toxic and non-biodegradable cleaning products?  Yet they did and they still do.  Where are the authorities in the matter people would say? I would agree and shrug my shoulders. EXACTLY! How is it that these companies still pollute and still provide harmful toxic ingrediants?  I guess in the world of business commerce rules.  Green might be in – but’s it’s not enough to halt the production of these terrible substances.  

Some countries and some states have now banned plastic bags. The choice for toting your groceries now isn’t paper or plastic. It’s now paper or buy a cute re-usable tote with our groovy name on it. It might be green to purchase or consume something more, but for those of us who have been re-using our paper bags until they are worn almost to a pulp – we were thought to be a tad weird. I am glad to see the action being taken – please don’t misunderstand me, action and change is a very good thing.

Long ago when these evil never to bio-degrade plastic bags were thought to be the best things since sliced bread, perhaps the harm they were causing to the environment was not understood. Did I think of that when I saved them to use for capturing dirty cat litter?  They were an indescribable convenience. Whhhhooooo plastic !!It’s not a hardship to the stores that are banning them, they will produce and sell something else in it’s place.  Commerce still strides on. Money is being made even if it’s to be green!!

AND the companies that manufacture those lovely plastic bags? They still have a zillion other stores that haven’t banned the use of plastic bags to make them for. Noone is slapping their hands and saying shame on you for your contribution to the landfills, noone is making them be responsible to clean up their mess, where are the steep fines or best yet who would have the audacity to shut the manufactures down all together ? It’s just not that simple is it??

How does any of this make a difference?

I feel at some level all changes collectively will add up to monumental changes. I feel striving for solutions rather than further aggravation will also help.  I of course have always felt that changing household cleaning brands will make a difference and best yet have been knocking on doors one house at a time ever since 1993 sharing that message. The founder of our company touted that very same philosophy – one house at a time we can make a difference.

I am very proud to be the steward of his vision and his pioneering- he and our company have been green since 1956 – WAY ahead of anyone else. Way ahead of his time. 

I am looking for those of you who want to make solid choices about cleaning green.

Choices that include: 

Products that don’t have something sneaky in them like 1,4-dioxane ( found in your ever so popular Method and Seventh Generations brand, but OOPS not mentioned on their labels )

Cleaning products that actually work – like they actually clean stuff the way they are supposed to.

Products that by design are so highly concentrated that the turn around time for you to re-purchase them is anywhere from 2-4 YEARS!!!
 
Products that actually biodegrade, in the world of green that would seemingly be an important detail!  

Wanted: Green wanna – be’s!!  Allow me to be of green service to you! 

here you are waiting and wanting to be really green flickr image credit

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean as seen on Oprah