SoySafe Green Cleaning Products
Soy what else is new? Glad you asked. As we each do our tiny part to collectively make Earth a little less polluted, many companies now offer cleaning and other maintenance products made from natural ingredients. And before anybody says, "Yeah, and arsenic's natural, too," let's not miss the forest for the trees — which no one has to hug, by the way, because going green is now less an ideology than it is a practicality: We want to keep our personal air as clean and breathable as possible and avoid the "toxic building" syndrome that's been proven to be the living-space equivalent of secondhand smoke.
We wrote about the topic in Habitat December 2006 ("Green Cleaning Products Can Actually Save You Money"), so we won't rehash the pros and cons here. What we will say about these representative items from the nearly quarter-century-old Barco Products Company is that there's something for everything. Sure, lots of people offer green spray-cleaners. But these guys even have a green drain-opener and septic-tank treatment! What makes that waste-product wonder green? According to the company, the product's non-toxic, non-flammable and certified biodegradable, and it uses enzymes that digest odors rather than chemicals that simply mask them. Likewise, Barco has a green lubricant for nuts, bolts, gears, etc., plus, of all things, an adhesive/mastic remover — we didn't even know what "mastic" was till we looked it up. (It's a resin-like sap from mastic trees, used in things like varnish.)
Barco sells these and others things online, with bulk discounts. Its SoySafe All Purpose Cleaner, for instance, costs $49.85 for a case of six 22-ounce bottles, and if you get six or more cases, they're $29.85 each.
Plus shipping. Hopefully by hybrid or hydrogen trucks.
Barco Products Company ( Cleaning Maintenance Solutions ) • 11 N. Batavia Avenue, Batavia, Ill. 60510 • (630) 879-0084 • toll-free (800) 338-2697 • CustomerService@barcoproducts.com