I consider myself natural and thrifty, meaning I like to find a good balance in my life. Something I do not budge on is natural and safe cleaners to use in my home. Publix put out some great coupons in one of their fliers recently that would have made most of the Clorox Green Works products .50 cents each or less. So I thought this would be a great way to try out some of these products.
I walked down the cleaner aisle and looked at the ingredient lists on all of the Green Works products. From the dish-washing soap to the multi-surface cleaner; I checked them all.
Two of the worst ingredients that are in all household items were in these products: Propylene Glycol and Sodium Laurel Sulfate. After seeing these two ingredients, I didn’t need to read on. There was no need to. Just the presence of these two chemicals voided GreenWorks’ claims at being green.
If you use regular cleaners in your home, these would be a step in the right direction. But if you are like me and only use natural cleaning products, then Green Works is not the way to go. Do a quick search on these two ingredients and you will see why I don’t recommend these products. So please don’t fall for the “green” hype that Clorox puts out for their “Green” Works products. I encourage you to be knowledgeable and always be aware of what you are spending your money on.
Suffice it to say I did not pick up these products, even though they were a bargain with coupons.
Please Note: This post is not meant to spark a debate. It is just my natural and thrifty opinion of a product.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this info!!! I purchased a bunch of “Green” works products last week during the Kmart doubles. I have yet to use them but now I don’t know. I, like many others, just thought they were automaticly “Green”. (I’ve been using Arm & Hammer Essentials, which I will have to go check now)
I try to be as eco friendly as I can be but I am still learning. I now Know I will have to check and recheck all of the labels to make sure they stay up to their word. Thank you again for passing this information on to us.
.-= Shopping Frugal´s last blog ..GIVEAWAY~ Wellness all natural DOG food & coupons! =-.
There was an article about these producta on MSN a few weeks ago. They are considered green for the wrong reasons, and they agreed, if you are truly trying to be green, these products are not.
Good little spill, Crystal!
Thank you for this information. I’m not a true green person so I appreciate this kind of tip–I’m still learning! And, it’s just another great point that just because it’s cheap, doesn’t mean it’s right for you. I think sometimes we get too caught up in our great bargain finds that we sometimes forget to think beyond our stack of coupons! Thanks for the reminder, TTM!
.-= Jenn´s last blog ..Old Navy and their weekly coupons… =-.
I bought some last week, got home and read the ingredients. I saw that, too, and I was wondering if that is ‘normal’ for ‘green products’ to contain. I am just running out of many cleaning products that I’ve gotten for free or very cheap, and, having a son w/ ADHD have decided to go all out green/organic. I was very disappointed when I saw this, and you just confirmed by suspicion.
Thanks for this post! It’s great info. Just wondering if you could suggest some products that you would use? I know many people just use vinegar, or baking soda to clean, but I’ve heard that although these clean well, they don’t kill germs well. I always like to listen to what people suggest. Also, I’m wondering about Purex…I’ve heard this was a green detergent, and switched to it b/c of that.
JC, Vinegar is a great germ-killer!
I use a lot of my own cleaning produts already.
I do have some of the A&H Essentials like a lot of people, but only because it was free after MIR. Havent done any research into how “green” it is though.
Thanks Crystal. Hope no one gives you any beef about this post, its very imformative! (And its your blog, post what you want!)
In light of your new post on Basic H2~ even with the green works at .50 the Basic H2 works out to be so much cheaper, with as long as it lasts =).
And, another thing about the Green Works, there’s so much water added to it (Basic H2 is super concentrated) and there’s so much waste in the packaging….something else to think about…
agreed luv!
vinegar is great to use.
there are many natural recipies online where you can mix your own.
also, there is a great book called the “queen of clean get dirty” that has recipes and tips for everything clean.
she gives informed tips.
I couldn’t agree with you more! This “greenwashing” is driving me crazy. It takes me so long to shop now because I can’t trust anything, so I have to read all of the labels. I practically live on this site: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php
Have you seen it? You can look up a product to see what rating they gave it and then look at why the ingredients are bad all for free. I wish they had one for cleaning supplies.
Method is another company that I don’t trust. They have bad stuff in there product too. Ugh, it’s so frustrating. If I had an extra $300 lying around, i would buy this: http://www.activeion.com/default.aspx
I wonder how well it works. I’ve also been thinking about buying a steam cleaner.
Sorry to ramble on and on, just wanted you to know I completely agree with your post. I’m glad you are educating people!
.-= Susan´s last blog ..New Mambo Sprouts Coupon! =-.
Hi, TTM. I love your site, and check it daily for the great deals! We aren’t a completely organic household, but I have made an effort to use greener cleaning products (as well as buying organic food when we can). I prefer Seventh Generation, but can often get GreenWorks for a better price (and to be honest, I feel some of their products clean better than SG). I was deeply concerned to read your review. I would love to hear more of your thoughts, but I also read about these two ingredients on tomsofmaine.com (one of the Google results), and they seem to feel these ingredients are generally safe (and use them in some products). There is so much info on the net, and it’s so hard to know what to trust… I would love to hear any other concerns you have as I really trust your opinion. Thanks.
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The Thrifty Mama here: I’m sorry to have to say this, but Tom’s of Maine is another company I don’t trust. Yes, their products are better than most, but still contain harmful chemicals.
Between vinegar and baking soda, there isn’t much I can’t clean so I tend not to go for deals on cleanings supplies, no matter how good the deal is.
I use half vinegar / half water in a spray bottle to handle most surfaces – floors, counters, mirrors, windors, shower doors, etc. I use baking soda for stuff that takes a tad more scrubbing – sinks and toilets.
I also use hardly any paper towels – we tear up old T-shirts and wash them. By the time the T-shirt is old enough to turn into a rag, it doesn’t lint anymore.