ECOLOGICAL SQUIRTINESS... (Ecover All Purpose Cleaner)

Member Name: katestuartuk

Product:	Ecover All Purpose Cleaner
Date:	31/01/08 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: can help save the world!!!

Disadvantages: none!!

ECOVER

SQUIRT ECO

I have been using Ecover products for years now, and find their cleaning capabilities quite satisfactory and their ethos exemplary, so when I noticed this during a weekly shop, I thought I'd have a go. Now I have always been one of these people convinced that our general overzealousness in the area of home cleanliness is probably a contributing factor to the rise in allergies these days, but with a new baby in the house I wanted to have that balance between keeping things hygienic and being obsessively clean in the area of kitchen surfaces. So, Dettol and Bleach OUT, Ecover IN!!!

Who are Ecover?

Well, they are the revolutionaries who first stood up and said "wait, there is another way!" and when it comes to cleaning your home, for me, they are really my only choice. I feel even more strongly about their way of producing and marketing their products now that I have my 4 month old daughter to consider - parenthood really does make you think more deeply about things.

In Belgium, in 1980, Ecover was founded as a pioneering company, selling phosphate free products. Phosphate free is good, by the way. As a company, Ecover is very concerned about environmental issues and in 1992 they opened the world's first ecological factory - it has a green "live" roof! If you read the back of your fabric softener bottle, it will tell you that this product is made at this very factory!

Every part of their business is covered by ecological policy, not just the products and production of them, but everything else, like marketing and sales (for example, they will refill your old bottles of washing up liquid, collecting them and delivering them back, free of charge. You just pay for the actual refill - pretty good!)
Ecover now have sites in the UK and USA, and sell their products in over 20 countries worldwide. All of their products are designed and made keeping environmental benefits to humans and animals as well as the planet herself, at the forefront, and for this, I applaud them! They also make me feel noble and goddess-like, and for this, I thank them.

www.ecover.com

The Squirt-iness

I love squirty bottles. They have a playful-ness about them that makes me feel quite youthful, and they're much more fun and take less time to use than a bottle you have to take the top off (and not loose the top off...), pour onto cloth, wipe....it's all too much! Squeeze trigger, wipe, done. No fuss and palaver, job's a goodun! The great thing about these bottles is that you can buy refills (the bottle bit) and re-use your squirty bit, thereby helping that little bit more to protect the environment and your pocket (the refill is cheaper coz you're not paying for the squirty bit. Good, eh?!)


The Stuff That's in The Cleaning and Would You Want To Eat It?

The thing that has always troubled me about surface cleaners is the idea that once you've cleaned, you might have a germ free (and who said germ-free was a good thing anyway? If there are no germs then how does are immune system know how to work properly?) - surface but anything you put on the surface is going to pick up the cleaning chemicals. You make a sandwich, and the bread soaks up all that lovely bleachieness and guess what? You eat it. Call me old-fashioned, but bleach sandwiches are not, how shall I say...my cup of tea. I've always figured a bowl of hot water does the same - heat killing bugs and all. Never had food poisoning, and always manage to stay healthy (though not wealthy and probably not wise either!) Add a baby to the equation though, and me as a first time new mum, and we have a different story. However, I know that the stuff in Ecover is powerful against germs but in a natural way - even the fragrances in it are plant based. I doubt I'd enjoy a whole bottle, but it certainly doesn't give me the heebie-jeebies to think of it in the vicinity of my cheese and tomato (with red pepper relish) sandwich.

The Eco Squirt Experience (ooh aaah!)

Well this is one of those products that does what it says on the box. Point, squirt, wipe, move on. The handy thing I have found is that you can use this one handed. That is to say that if you happen to be tidying the kitchen with the baby on one arm, there are no tops to unscrew, lids to loose, caps to put back on. You just pull the trigger and away you go! Easy as pie. The smell is lovely - makes me thing of flower borders on a summer morning - really early when the sun is just coming up. Marigolds and such. The ingredients say it has plant based floral perfumes added to it, and I am willing to bet a whole 20p that somewhere in there are some marigolds! Anyway, whatever it is that makes it smell - it really does smell lovely. Clean. Fresh. Florally!

The Monetary Value of Squirt Eco!!

I get my Ecover stuff from Tesco, as I haven't yet been able to source it locally. It costs £1.98 for a 500ml squirt-topped bottle. A single bottle of this will last a good month in our house - we don't go overboard on how much we use and we don't have very big benches on account of our tiny kitchen, but you might use it a bit faster if you have (trying not to be jealous here...) really long surfaces....!

My Opinion

I have long ago stopped trying to brute-force people into being green. The way I see it, people can choose to help save the planet or not - I'm happy doing my own little bit and trying the best I can. I do feel more strongly about things now that my baby girl is here - and I feel incredibly proud of myself that one day in a history lesson or some such, she, or maybe even her own daughters will think about the efforts we have made to make things better for the future. I know there are so many things out of our reach - so many things we feel we can have no real impact on as long as other people have their way - landfill sites, gas guzzlers, bloomin aeroplanes, nuclear power stations, that kind of thing - but this is one place I can truly say I know, through consumer power, I am making a difference. And that pleases me greatly. It's a good product. It does what it says it will do. And in buying it, I raise my voice to the chemical based crap, stick two fingers up to the non-recycled bottles, shout hallelujah for cleaning products that will save the world. I can choose to eat my cheese and tomato (with red pepper relish) sandwich without a coating of chemical mess. Can you?

Thank you for reading, Kate x

Summary: RECOMMENDED!!