Sustainability Spotlight: Spring Cleaning
Sweet Farm is the first non-profit sanctuary in the world to address the global climate impacts of factory farming across animals, the plants, and the planet. Our food web is incredibly complicated and it’s impossible to move forward without first understanding how these pieces are connected. By linking climate education, regenerative agriculture, farm-animal rescue, and the technology that is sustainably disrupting food and agriculture production — Sweet Farm is the world's first Climate Sanctuary. Our monthly sustainability newsletter shares easy ways that you can contribute to our mission to create a compassionate and sustainable world.
Keeping your house and the planet clean
The air is just starting to warm up, birds are returning, and we are all wanting to throw open our windows and get to our spring cleaning! Is it the nip in the air that is stopping us, or is it that we wondering whether our cleaning products are actually cleaning or polluting?
Earth Day is a month from today, and 2024's focus is on plastic pollution. We are learning more and more every day about how microplastics are making their way into everything, and it's so scary! But we can do something about it! Plastic scrub brushes, mops, and sponges release tiny particles of plastic (micro and even tinier nanoplastic particles) every time they are used. These particles go right down the drain and are not caught by municipal waste treatment facilities, so they end up in our waterways and oceans (where they are eaten by wildlife) and even in the air all around us.
So what can we do?
Well, plastic cleaning products aren't the only ones out there! We love our Swedish dishcloths and bamboo & sisal cleaning brushes from Plantish. They carry everything you need to swap out your plastic products for sustainable ones. And remember, the best way to make your life more sustainable is NOT to just throw out everything you already have! Use the things you have, and when it is time for new ones, that's when you switch to an eco-friendly option.
The greenest option is almost always to just use what you already have.
Did you know conventional cleaning products emit dangerous VOCs (volatile organic compounds) into our homes, which have been shown to cause childhood asthma?
The EPA has created a "Safer Choice Standard" to help consumers choose products that are less harmful to their health and the health of their loved ones, pets, or employees. It's at least a place to start when you are buying cleaning products for your spring cleaning!
There are also a number of companies now who are making zero-waste tablets that you can just drop into a spray bottle you already have, instead of buying another plastic bottle full of dangerous VOCs. You can find them for multi-surface cleaners, window cleaners, bathroom cleaners...anything you can think of now!
Worried that safer products won't get your house as clean or disinfect as well as traditional disinfectants? Check out this list for dozens of choices that disinfect without damaging your septic system (that's right - you can't even use bleach if you are on septic!), the groundwater (where lots of cleaning chemicals end up), or getting into our drinking water.
It can be intimidating to think about how to lessen our impact while keeping our families safe. But we can do this. And Sweet Farm is here to help you on that journey!
