By Mark Lowman,
Scientific Advisory Board member
A wise frog once lamented that it is not easy being green. Taken in the context of home care products, he could be right if being green is not part of a company’s philosophy – the way the company conducts itself with careful consideration for the environment and for the people using the product.
That is exactly how NeoLife is with its Golden Home Care line of cleaning products. It is part of our company’s culture and philosophy to be mindful of the potential impact on the environment that cleaning products can have both inside and outside the home. You could say that NeoLife was green long before the term became a buzzword. In fact, NeoLife cared about the environment before it became cool, so for us it really is not too hard to be green.
Thinking about it, it was probably the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in the 1960s that focused NeoLife scientists’ attention on clean ingredient selection. Silent Spring described the negative impacts that persistent, nonbiodegradable compounds have on the environment; of the cost to all of us for being environmentally irresponsible.1 It was such a clarion call that NeoLife put itself at the forefront of clean ingredient selection, and that is demonstrated today in the Golden Home Care line: LDC, Super 10, and Green.
But what does “being green” mean?
It means following the Three R’s – reduce, recycle, reuse – and Do No Harm to the environment. It’s a little like the backpacker’s motto, “leave only footprints.” So let’s check in on how we follow these green principles.
Reduce
Most of the cleaning product you see nowadays are ready-to-use formulas. What that means is that they are made using an excess amount of a very important commodity, water. When you look at the droughts occurring globally, it doesn’t take much to realise that water might be our most precious commodity, and reducing water use has a direct, positive impact on the environment.2,3
All Golden Home Care products – LDC, Super 10, and Green — are produced as concentrates using the least water possible. With careful ingredient selection, these concentrated products are formulated so that a little goes a long way, further reducing water consumption. In addition, because the products are so concentrated and highly effective, the demand on the ingredients is reduced, which helps to maintain their sustainability.
On this same reduction track, the fact that our Golden Home Care line is concentrated, rather than use up and toss out, has kept millions of plastic containers out of landfills over the years.
Recycle
When packaging is selected for any product, NeoLife considers the environmental impact and emphasises recyclability. This is true with Golden Home Care products as well. The Super 10, LDC, and Green bottles and caps were specially selected for ease of recyclability. The shipper cartons used to bring Golden Home Care to your door are recyclable as well.
One reminder, often times bottle caps are made of a different recyclable plastic than the bottles they fit onto. Before placing the Super 10, LDC or Green bottles into your recycle bin, separate the caps from the bottles to make it easier for the recycling centre. Placing those Golden Home Care containers in your recycling bin helps us all to be green.
Reuse
Super 10 and LDC are super concentrated, so making ready-to-use dilutions in a reusable spray bottle or similar reusable container makes a lot of sense. When the bottle is empty, give it a little rinse and reuse it to make a new dilution. For those litre-sized Green Cleaner container, another bottle isn’t even necessary with the available reusable pump top specially made for one-litre Green bottles. In addition, there are also reusable 250 mL Green countertop pump dispensers available from NeoLife. All reusable packaging helps reduce the amount of containers heading to landfills, helping keep you green.
Do No Harm
Doing no harm to the environment is a big part of the Green philosophy, and we take it very seriously. Many cleaning products are not biodegradable, and that means nothing but harmful effects to the environment. All Golden Home Care products were carefully developed with biodegradable surfactants so that there would be no harm done to our waterways and the flora and fauna in and around them. Not to mention no harm to water treatment systems that are so important to keeping our environment protected.
Of critical importance is that Golden Home Care products do no harm to the people that use them nor to their home environments. There is plenty of data showing that other home care products that were developed without taking the safety of the people who use them in mind contribute to a hefty amount of in-home accidental poisonings.4 Golden Home Care products were developed to be safe for you and your home with no harsh chemicals, no harsh fumes and to be gentle, non-irritating, and non-drying.
Keeping true to the principles of green home care to recycle, reduce, reuse and doing no harm helps to ensure that using NeoLife Golden Home Care products will keep your home clean and green. It may not be easy to be green, but NeoLife Golden Home Care products help to make it a lot easier.
References:
- Carson R. Silent Spring. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin; 1962.
- Aarhus University. Worldwide water shortage by 2040. Science Daily. Published July 29, 2014. Accessed Feb 22, 2023. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140729093112.htm.
- James I. Battling to avoid massive water cuts, California offers proposal on Colorado River crisis. Los Angeles Times. Published Feb 1, 2023. Accessed Feb 22, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-02-01/california-offers-proposal-on-colorado-river-crisis.
- Gummin DD, et al. 2021 Annual Report of the National Poison Data System (NPDS) from America’s Poison Centers: 39th Annual Report, Clinical Toxicology. 2022 Dec; 60(12): 1381-643. doi: 10.1080/15563650.2022.2132768.