In recent years, there has been a sustained demand for cleaning products that don’t harm the environment or contain chemicals that put people’s health at risk. Green cleaning products, as they are also known, are particularly important in certain settings like hospitals, schools, and offices.
ICE Cleaning is a professional cleaning company that offers a wide range of specialist cleaning services from brick and stone cleaning to mould remediation. Its cleaning experts have lots of experience with a wide range of eco-friendly, non-toxic cleaning products and methods.
Keep reading to find out what green cleaning is and learn about its history.
What is green cleaning?
Green cleaning consists of cleaning products and methods that don’t damage the environment. It takes into account things like waste, consumption, recycling, air and water quality, and energy use. Here are some examples of green cleaning products:
- Cleaning agents that don’t contain chemicals
- Zero-VOC products
- Fume-free and scent-free cleaning agents
- Products that you can recycle or that use recyclable packaging
There are lots of benefits to green cleaning such as not being exposed to harmful chemicals, reducing your environmental footprint, and improving the air quality in your property.
These products and techniques can also boost employee productivity and strengthen your company’s image if used in an office.
The history of green cleaning
The first cleaning products used in ancient times, like soaps made of animal fat and ash, would have technically qualified as green cleaning products as they would be free of modern chemicals.
But since then, cleaning agents have been developed based on the belief that chemicals would effectively kill germs. This changed in the 1960s when the safety of chemicals was questioned and people became aware of the impact of such substances on the environment and people’s health.
One of the most significant causes of this shift was the publishing of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962). It explored the harmful effects of pesticides of the environment, and many claim this book started the modern environmental movement.
This also coincided with the emergence of the hippie counterculture in the ‘60s and ‘70s which encouraged a green, natural lifestyle.
The Santa Barbara oil spill occurred in 1969, too, which would go on to inspire Earth Day the following year. The National Environment Policy Act was passed in the US in 1970 and stated that federal agencies needed to consider the environmental impacts of their actions, as well.
The greater understanding of people’s impact on the planet resulted in green cleaning products appearing on the shelves in the 1970s and 1980s.
By the 1990s, the general public had become aware of climate change which was – and still is – a driving force behind green cleaning. This demand for green cleaning was renewed in the next decade by an interest in sustainable products.
ICE Cleaning’s professional cleaners have the training and experience to deliver a safe, effective, green cleaning service. The company operates nationwide, 24/7, 365 days a year, and can be on-site for several hours in an emergency.
You can learn more about ICE Cleaning and its professional cleaning services on its website.
