I am slightly suspicious of the new squeeze bottles standing proudly beneath the kitchen sink.
Motivated by a Tribune article about the toxicity of household cleaners, we headed to Target and bought a boatload of non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning supplies. (We rented a car to get to Target, but I believe our new mixtures also remove unsightly carbon footprints.)
So far so good; the tableware is emerging clean as ever from the dishwasher. But I’m not sure what to make of the non-specific ingredients that comprise these green cleaning solutions. “Grease-cutters” and “soap scum dissolver” sound like things a seven-year-old would invent while playing in the bathtub. However, our Tilex bottle lists only two ingredients: Sodium Hypochlorite and “97% other ingredients.” It seems we’re moving in the right direction.
Green is the new black. Even web design is getting into the action; my co-worker turned up a blog post about the thousands of kilowatts that would be saved if Google switched its background from white to black. Mull that one over for awhile.
Back on the homefront, we can’t decide what to do with the offending cleaning materials that remain. They’re mostly full; it would be a shame to waste good Windex. And isn’t it just as bad to throw them into a landfill? What Would Al Gore Do?