Most people base their purchasing decisions on time and money, but some take it one step further--they put their money where their values are.
Those contemplating "going green" in celebration of Earth Day's 30-year anniversary Saturday may find it difficult when it comes to housecleaning products. It is hard to tell what products are truly Earth-friendly--not just marketed as such--and which work, because few green products are rated.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday May 2, 2000 Home Edition Southern California Living Part E Page 3 View Desk 2 inches; 38 words Type of Material: Correction
Product prices--"Green Cleaning: It's Not That Easy," an article that ran April 21, stated an incorrect price. Bi-O-Kleen cleansers, made by a Portland-based manufacturer of all-natural cleaning products, costs between $2.99 and $6.99 per quart, depending on the item.
Reading the labels may provide some clues, but the government does not require manufacturers to list all their ingredients. When lists of ingredients are provided, they are often filled with scientific terms that are indecipherable to the average consumer.
Green products are also more expensive--sometimes double the cost of conventional, nationally advertised brands--because they include natural ingredients such as citrus, soybeans and essential oils instead of cheaper chemicals like chlorine.
The best you can do is buy a few, test them at home and assess the results for yourself.
Finding green cleaning products may not be easy. While there are more of them on the market today than there were 10 years ago, they account for a minuscule part of the market for all house cleaners. They lack the marketing muscle of nationally advertised, name-brand items, and their distribution is not widespread. That is why most grocery store chains carry few, if any, green products.
Americans, for example, spent $4.6 billion on conventional laundry detergents alone in 1999. The industry's bestseller--Tide powder laundry detergent--accounted for $717 million of those sales. By comparison, sales of the bestselling, comparable green product--Planet powder laundry detergent--was $645,000, less than one-tenth of 1% of the bestselling version of Tide.
While each of the three major chains in Southern California--Albertson's, Ralph's and Vons--carry most, if not all, of Tide's 12 formulas, they stock only one green detergent, and that is Planet. Spokespeople for Vons and Ralph's each said the stores' decisions are based on consumer demand for such products, which is still relatively low.
"Consumers are overwhelmed with things to worry about . . . from violence in schools to unemployment," says Stephen Ashkin, director of product development and environmental affairs for Vermont-based Seventh Generation, an Earth-friendly manufacturer. ". . . People have so many issues to deal with in their lives, it's hard for them to say, 'OK, now I'm going to deal with the environmental impact of the products I buy.' "
