Refill and reuse cleaning products!

As you know, I’m a big fan of green cleaning products.

So many of the household cleaning products you buy contain toxic chemicals which can pollute the air inside your home and the environment at large.

I’m also rather miffed that the first ingredient in most products is water – in fact up to 90% of the products you buy can be water! When you think about the fact you are paying for it, and so is the environment in terms of extraction and transportation, there has to be a better solution.

Fortunately Mark Sims has come up with a solution with his eco2life product range; following his quest to find environmentally friendly, high performance cleaning products.

As well as caring about the products I use, I care passionately about what happens to packaging after I’ve finished with something. If it can’t be reused, recycled or composted I refuse to buy it.

Refill and reuse

The eco2life products are built around a simple refill system. All you do is buy a small bottle of the product you want and use it to refill the bottles you have by following these four steps:

• Fill a bottle half full with ordinary tap water

• Add one 50 ml refill to the 500ml eco2life bottle

• Top up with more tap water

• Replace the trigger, give it a shake and you’re good to go!

You can see how simple it is by watching the short You Tube video above.

Effective, safe cleaning

Mark understands that in order to make a product appealing it has to be simple to use and effective at cleaning. It’s no good having an environmentally friendly product if it doesn’t do the job. I’ve tried many brands and let’s just say some are more effective than others!

The four products in the range (multi-surface, glass, bathroom and floor cleaner) have been tested scientifically to ensure they do what they claim and Mark’s business is grounded in environmental consciousness.

The raw materials are made from naturally derived materials, renewable resources and are rapidly biodegradable. The bottles are totally recyclable and the trigger can potentially be used 10,000 times; that’s much longer than you or I will be rolling up our sleeves to clean!

As well as those fabulous eco credentials all eco2life products are made in the UK AND they’ve just been vegetarian society approved.

Sustainable ingredients

Health wise, eco2life use ingredients derived from corn, sugar cane and coconut rather than the nasties you’ll find in conventional products such as petroleum solvents phosphates or chlorine.

If you want to take your first step into a more eco friendly lifestyle, you can buy a product starter kit including a 50ml ‘small wonder’ refill, a bottle and spray trigger or you can invest in a Cleaning Box (the complete range including four refills).

I’m currently using their multi surface cleaner. After being a bit concerned about the ingredient ‘perfume’ and asking all those awkward questions, my fears were put to one side when I was assured the scent was a blend of around 10 elements, mainly essential oils from plants or fruits. The ginger smell is quite strong for me, but it’s fresh and certainly has that ‘just cleaned’ smell.  Many people who love the smell of their conventional cleaning products are afraid to go ‘au natrelle’ so I think this product will be a winner.

Fortunately I can buy eco2life from my food co-op which means I’ll be able to save even more money by purchasing in bulk 😉 If you want to give eco2life a go, you can buy the range from Big Green Smile.