How to Find the Least Toxic Cleaning Products
Cleaning products don’t have to list the ingredients on the packaging, so it can be difficult to figure out what you’re actually getting. If you are looking for cleaning products that work best for your health and the environment, try these labels, which indicate that the products have passed a certain test.
- Safer Choice : The US EPA maintains a database of cleaning products with non-toxic ingredients. You can also find their Safer Choice stamp on product labels. There are also special versions of the seal for fragrance-free products and for products intended for outdoor use. (Outdoor products enter the environment without undergoing wastewater treatment, so they must meet more stringent requirements.)
- EcoLogo : This product is backed by Underwriters Laboratories and you can find a list of their certified cleaning products here .
- GreenSeal is run by an independent non-profit organization and their database of cleaning products is located here .
- Eco-Scale is a Whole Foods rating system. It looks like they don’t have a product listing online, but you can find out more about their process here and find colored labels in stores.
All of these seals and ratings are given following an application process in which the manufacturer discloses their ingredients (whether or not they appear on the product label) and the organization decides if those ingredients meet their criteria. Most of them take a special look at the “life cycle” of a product, which includes what happens to it after you finish using it. For example, can it accumulate in the environment?
Most cleaning products are suitable for the levels we usually use, so don’t worry. But these labels are a hint that the cleaning product might be slightly better for the environment or for people like cleaners who spend a lot of time with them.