I wrote a final paper in college a few years ago, when I finished up a degree in Community Development at Portland State University, on how every American home has a toxic waste dump of cleaning products under the sink, and how to address this under the radar environmental issue. I didn't even go into yard maintenance products, in order to keep my essay focused, but that is a whole other issue. [Note that the paper covered a broader solution goal, that is, how the local government could educate the public on it and other ideas, here just focusing on a personal solution that lead to the broader scope of the essay I eventually wrote].
The issue isn't just that those toxic cleaning products are sitting there, in closed containers. It is that they are used, and that ultimately they all end up in our water, thus the soil, and in the atmosphere. Also, whenever a region floods, due to heavy rain, hurricanes, etc., those toxins are mass dumped into the water table. It is a major issue for rescuers as well as the folks who need to be rescued. Those chemicals combined with sewage spewed into the water makes for a powerful environmental concern.
One thing that happens in a capitalist system is that companies are always trying to come up with new products, and that becomes a priority over any other concern, because of course in a capitalist system, money, and specifically profit, is king of all. So in the case of toxic cleaning products, there are a ridiculous amount of them, all with some added gimmick to them, multiplying profit, and thus, more and more of this shite is put into our atmosphere.
As I covered in my college paper, I had a cleaning business in Seattle in the mid '90s through the late '90s, at the peak 8 accounts, lived on it, did the work myself (with a very short period having some folks work for me) and I used the traditional set up for cleaning bathrooms in the US; Clorox and Windex. Windex is straight up ammonia, and I don't think I have to convince you how nasty the stuff is, you have breathed in Windex or straight ammonia at some point, I am sure, and there are those unfortunate souls who didn't know that mixing ammonia and bleach cause a compound that releases a toxic gas which in turn causes lung damage (there are many documented cases, I found in the research for my paper.)
I was cleaning offices and recording studios exclusively, I didn't at all like the idea of going into house cleaning and into people's lives directly, and offices are way easier to clean, and I cleaned recording studios as I am/was a musician and knew what not to touch in a recording studio, and, they were studios where I had recorded, so one new recording studio account led to another. I digress, a little, but all to say these places I cleaned had small bathrooms, and I thought about how I was in these small spaces, inhaling ammonia (yes, in retrospect I could have got some masking, but I was younger, yada, yada...) and how fucking awful that was. And later I thought of how so many people were doing the same, radiating out from any given block where I was cleaning an account, all that ammonia, multiplied into the atmosphere. Then all the bleach, the Clorox (an interesting fact about bleach is compared to many other toxic substances, it is at the very least, broken down to a basic form chemically, hard to explain...) Nasty! : 0
I did some (pre-internet) research and came up with two basic products I need that were completely natural and did all the same jobs all the other swill of awful, harmful chemical compounds I had always had under my sink since moving out on my own (and after of course growing up with it) and having carted it all around to my cleaning accounts for a number of years, until this revelation. It is so simple, it seems deceiving, but, it is these two things: Bon Ami cleaner, which is just made of corn starch, and white vinegar diluted in water in a spray bottle (to replace the Windex.)
'Vinegar to replace Windex?' you scoff at me, 'what on Earth are you talking about?' Yeah, try it. You can vary the ratio of water (cold tap water, and let it run to clear the sitting water from the pipe) to vinegar until you get a good compound (you want to smell that vinegar to know it is strong enough to be antiseptic.) I feel it cleans glass and mirrors specifically way better than Windex (sorry Windex, the truth is out!...Please don't kill me...it was bad enough you were killing me slowly!)
After I ask you to stop yelling, I tell you that starch that is as concentrated as Bon Ami is powerful, more so if you get the surface to be cleaned wet, sprinkle it on, and let the starch do its work over 10 or 15 minutes, you can spray some vinegar water compound on - This is good for cutting boards and counters (especially white ones, it will remove pretty much any stain, wine, whatever.) Just scrub and rinse. Bon Ami also works wonders on chrome, it won't scratch it, get chrome wet, sprinkle it on, scrub off with rag or paper towel, rinse.
[Addendum: After writing this I realized I left out a crucial home cleaning product: Dish soap! I use the brand in the photo below, but any legitamately natural dish soap will work, there are many effective ones out there (beware ones from large soap companies labeled 'green' or 'natural', they are merely trying to catch that market and use clever wording to get around the fact that it ain't natural, ain't green, no way, no how! And even if it is natural, in my view, I would still be supporting a company that was part of the problem - when companies go to all natural, environmentally safe solutions, they will have my ear and maybe my money...Anyhow, always check ingredients!)]
Also, as an ex girlfriend of mine will tell you (she taught me this) most drain clogs can be cleared with baking soda (another powerful natural cleaner) and white vinegar (again, play with ratios.) I do concede though, that for really, really tough drain clogs, nothing works as good as the old nasty toxic shit. And you are left with a choice. In my case, I am too broke to call a plumber, so sometimes my plumber is first name 'Liquid' : ( - If anyone knows of a strong natural solution, let me know. I have not yet found it (also holding out for vegetarian bacon as good as bacon, but that one may never come...sigh)
I don't want to beat this one to death or anything, but I am here to tell you these two (well three if you include baking soda) things are all you need to clean everything in your house, and they are completely environmentally friendly. You see, there are millions of us. I could get nihilistic and say that we as humans are really just a parasite of Earth, but my take is, if that is true, we should strive for our best hope; Becoming a mutually beneficial symbiotic parasite.
I will leave it there. Here are some photos to
wander through. Have a swell rest of wherever
you find yourself in your day, I hope it was/is a
day that feels/felt good.
Love to folks and critters,
Wayne Ray Flower II
All photos by Wayne R. Flower
Train and train-yard as art
Human machinations
Unintentional art
The morning after
Toxic beauty
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