Let’s say you’ve just returned home from your weekly grocery shopping and are putting your purchases away. As you unpack your reusable shopping bags that is full of your most recent cleaning product purchases you look at your cleaning cabinet. It may actually qualify as a miniature superfund site.

A closer look reveals that you are not that different than the rest of us – we all have different cleaners for wood, stainless steel, tile, windows, carpets, drains, and everything else under the sun. You admit to yourself that perhaps you like a clean house way too much and that you’ve got a soft spot for the high tech cleaning gadgets, but is any of it eco-friendly?

Consider your municipal water system – what do you think is the biggest challenge for them? It isn’t the organic waste that is difficult to deal with. Organic waste settles to the bottom where it is then taken care of by special enzymes. Chemicals are another story. Cities and municipalities have to use a series of filtration systems to remove chemicals from the water. Other chemicals are often added to help neutralize some of the more hazardous chemicals. However, this water isn’t even completely purified; it is merely purified enough to be pumped down the river, or into a lake.

If you think businesses and manufacturing facilities are the biggest problems – think again. They are closely monitored for chemical pollution to waterways. Homeowners like us are the real problem. With thousands of people on a local water system, and millions on a big city system it is impossible to control what gets washed down the drain or flushed down the toilet. While some offenses are blatant, such as pouring antifreeze or other used car chemicals down the drain, most comes out of ignorance, as most people assume that the manufacturer of the product is selling you something that is safe and look no further. Unfortunately, this is not true. The enzymes and boosters put in most cleaning products have detrimental impacts on algae growth and oxygen levels in water which has a very large negative impact on marine ecosystems.

So, what can we do? Like most things, it all begins with a little education. For instance, home cleaning can be done with several safer cleansers like alcohol, ammonia, bleach, detergent, oil and soaps. Make sure not to mix these chemicals since doing so can be deadly.

One major source of chemicals in the water comes from laundry. However, it really only takes a simple detergent to keep clothes clean. Bleach is great for light clothes. Soaking extremely dirty clothes first, and then washing with a simple detergent is generally effective. Most stains will come clean with the use of alcohol. Vinegar can help with grease or oil stains. A tried and true cleaner for glass is made from ammonia and water mixed equally. The best cleaner for wood surfaces is simply a mild oil soap. There are even natural, eco-friendly cleaning techniques for virtually every mess or stain out there that involve the use of oils created from things like peppermint and lavender!

A general rule to follow when looking at what kind of cleaning products to use is to avoid products that use more than 7-10 ingredients. This won’t solve all the problems, but it will help. If you really want to get as eco-friendly as possible, look around online for “recipes” for cleaning products that you can make at home using only water and natural oils and extracts. Next time you are shopping for home cleanup products you may want to remember that it’s not just buying or bringing your organic cotton bags, its what you put in, or don’t put in it.