Green Cleaning Products Can Actually Save You Money

The term "green cleaning products" refers to those that are biologically based, generally meaning made from plants, rather than created using petrochemicals, chemical isolated or derived from petroleum or natural gas.

"When you spray Windex on a pane of glass," explains Stan Halpern, head of the green-products company Healthy Clean Buildings, "there are three poisons — ammonia, isoproponal alcohol and 2-butoxyethanol." A 2000 study done by the Environmental Protection Agency found that over time, 2-butoxyethanol, which is absorbed through the skin, would "poison your blood [and] cause damage to kidney and liver…." If your super or porter uses Windex frequently, we're talking the droplet-splatter version of secondhand smoke.

Yet while there are health benefits to getting rid of ammonia, bleach and other petrochemical products, which can also trigger respiratory problems, "Buildings change and convert not because of the health benefits, but because of the economic benefits," believes Dino Leva, president of Every Supply Company, a building maintenance supply firm.

Cents and Sensibility

The Vanguard Chelsea, for example, instead of buying Windex, Spic and Span, Lysol and ammonia in bulk, relies on a hydroperoxide concentrate, green-seal certified, that is dispensed through four dispensers and mixed with water. Depending on the use of the product, whether to clean windows and surfaces or floors and carpets, the level of concentrate is adjusted accordingly. "The dispenser holds one gallon of concentrate. If you choose glass cleaner, every time you dispense, mixing with the building's water source, the net cost of taking 32 ounces out of the dispenser is approximately five cents," Leva says.

Let's say a 32-fluid-ounce (one quart) bottle of Windex costs $3.80. Dispensing a quart of H2Orange2, which is composed of orange oil, stabilized hydrogen peroxide and biodegradable soap, costs five cents. A bottle of Fantastik cleaning spray costs $3.09 for a quart. To get the same-level cleaning product from the dispenser costs 50 cents.

Since going green, says Vanguard Chelsea resident manager Michael Tierney, there are fewer odors in the air, "the air quality has improved and the overall building environment has improved." And, he adds, "instead of a shopping list of ten different products to clean the building, the one product is doing several jobs."

How to Start

The first step in initiating a green cleaning program is to have your manager call in a green-cleaning company for a free consultation. The company rep walks through the building, notes all the surfaces to be cleaned and presents the board a product-and-pricing proposal.

If the board agrees to the proposal, the real education begins: training the staff on how to use the dispenser and at what level to mix the concentrate and water. With green cleaning products, you can't just squirt and wipe – you need more "dwell" time, says Halpern. The product needs to sit longer on a surface, but in exchange, it cleans more completely, without leaving chemical-based residues that will attract dust and grime.

"This is a whole reeducation, retraining and reconditioning [of] people" to rethink what a clean product should act and smell like, says Halpern, since people often make the mistake of thinking that if a product doesn't have a strong smell, it won't do the job. After the initial staff training, the company returns once or twice a year for follow-up training, or to go over the basics again.

Safer Supers

Green cleaning is a "win-win for the workers, the tenants, and the building managers," says Linda Nelson, director of training for the maintenance workers' union, Local 32B/J. The union offers green-cleaning seminars to its members in New York City, and the results have been an ever-greater demand for green cleaning products, Nelson says.

Such products range from microfiber rags that trap and pick up dust – replacing cloth rags – to BioBags (kitchen trash bags) that, at $6.99 for a package of 12, cost less than a 10-bag box of Hefty at $6.59 a box. There is Bio-cleanse, a scouring cleanser, at $4.95 a bottle, which serves as a safer replacement for a 32-ounce bottle of Lysol at $4.19 a bottle. Bonax, a wood floor cleaner, $6.99 a bottle, is a safer replacement for Murphy's Oil Soap, at $3.79 for a 32-ounce bottle.

At the Vanguard Chelsea, each new tenant gets a gift box of green cleaning supplies, including laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid, dish towels and toilet tissue made out of recycled paper. The idea is to get the new tenants into the habit of buying green, so the building can maintain an overall healthier atmosphere. "It's a whole process of reeducating people to the idea of green cleaning," says resident-manager Tierney. "It's an ongoing learning thing."

Adapted from Habitat December 2006. For the complete article and more, join our Archive >>