Can eco-friendly products clean up without cleaning you out?

Small steps for a better world

Do you use eco-friendly products around the home? If not, I’m guessing it comes down to two things: efficacy (there’s no point buying a product that doesn’t work ) and price (sadly, the economic climate means fewer and fewer of us are in a position to pay a premium for environmentally friendly / ethical goods).

With those thoughts in mind, I accepted an offer to review some new items from Ecover’s new range.

We were sent:

• Oven and Hob Cleaner (500ml) £3.79
• Non-bio Laundry Gel (630ml) £4.99 or approx. 28p per wash
• Antibacterial Wipes £2.19 for 40 wipes
• Festive Cookies Washing Up Liquid (500ml) £1.85

So cost-wise, the Ecover products compare pretty favourable with non-eco alternatives, but also have the following benefits:

• 100% renewable, reusable and recyclable packaging
• Made from sustainable plant-based and mineral ingredients
• Low toxicity with fewer unwanted residues, they biodegrade quickly and therefore have less impact on aquatic life
• 200-250 miles from London, so not too bad for transportation miles

But of course a key question is: do they work? Yes, they do.

The laundry gel left our clothes as clean and fresh smelling as the non-bio supermarket brand we usually use and no one else noticed the difference. Of course, if your clothes have been soaked in tomato sauce and the like, the laundry gel won’t get the stains out on its own, but few liquids have that power.

The anti-bacterial wipes are very wet, which means they’re really quite effective at cleaning surfaces like Miss J’s highchair tray with its slightly caked on breakfast remnants, although I did need to dry the surface off with a clean cloth afterwards. They smell lovely as they’re scented with pomegranate and lime and they’re fully biodegradable.

The washing up liquid works fine. I’m used to concentrated washing up liquids these days, so I got through more than I usually would squirt for squirt, but the results were good and again it smells lovely as it’s scented for the festive season with a sweet, spicy kick.

The oven and hob cleaner has a mild, inoffensive smell and it’s great to use something that doesn’t reek of strong chemicals. It cleaned our hob perfectly well but we still need something with more punch to get rid of the build up in our heavily used oven.

All in all, with the exception of very heavy duty de-greasing jobs, I see no reason not to go eco.

Disclosure: we were sent four Ecover products free of charge for review. No payment was received for this post. All posts are 100% honest.

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