Is it really more expensive to be Green?
Words Jen Stringer
Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
At my last trip to Target, somewhere between “No, Mommy I don’t want to ride in the cart, I want to walk all by myself!” and “What? We are at triple digits already?” I noticed something that disproves an assumed truth about sustainable living: If you want to live green you can fork over more green. Well, maybe not for long. As more people start wanting and buying more eco-friendly products there is more competition and better pricing so that products compete with each other. This is a good thing for all of us and our mother earth. I just wanted to share an example of this in a national store:
Non-biodegradable Tide, a 40 load bottle of for the same price as 64 load bottle of Seventh Generation eco-friendly detergent.
If everyone keeps buying sustainable products, more will be made. Sooner or later our choice of sustainability will have much less to do with our wallets and more with our convictions
- Tide vs. Seventh Generation = Seventh Generation wins!
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Question: Does the seventh generation detergent work as well as Tide does? If it does, then I agree with you, def the better buy, but if it doesnt and it takes you twice as many washes to get your stuff clean, it ends up costing you more money in the end. The question I believe should be, Is it worth the money to take the chance to be more Green? That answer is yes. However, you still have to get more bang for the buck. I find this probable in being diabetic and trying to eat foods that are healthier for me. I just can’t afford it, so I end up eating things that are only going to do me more harm because that is all I can afford. Sucks, doing the right thing can cost so much.
Even better (and MUCH cheaper), you can make your own laundry detergent.
All you need is a bar of soap, borax and super washing soda (AKA: Soda Ash). You can use any bar soap, but I’ve found the laundry bar soaps (Such as Zote) to be more effective.
According to The Simple Dollar, it costs 2.5 cents per load if you follow their recipe. I used to use this recipe but find it is better to use two cups of both washing soda and borax (here’s some other recipes).
I’ve read the homemade stuff works just fine in HE machines. It doesn’t produce much suds at all, but it does clean very well.
The only place I’ve found super washing soda locally is at Farm Fresh and not all of them seem to have it. Arm and Hammer puts it out. It’s cheap, around 2-4 bucks for a box. Borax is around the same price. Zote is about a buck at Target.
You can even use washing soda and borax to make your own dish washer detergent.
Myself, I find filthiness to be thrifty.
Rock on! I do find that Seventh Generation does work as well as Tide and I love the eucalyptus sent, but I really want to try the ‘Make it yourself’ version. I am sure you could add a little bit of essential oils to that mix if you wanted some smell good too.
Is there anyone making things like this locally? Any farmer’s markets or local stores? Some people don’t feel crafty enough to make these things on their own.
I am crafty though, I was just thinking that I should start making my ‘windex’. I have a recipe for an easy and organic bug control for gardens which consists of a spray bottle of warm water and 3 tbs. of organic dish detergent.
Anybody have any other good recipes for home cleaning products or anything else useful?
We added some essential oils and find it really didn’t add too much to the smell of the clothing. Zote soap has a generic laundry smell to it. I believe Fels Naptha (another laundry bar soap) has a good smell to it. For the most part, your clothes just smell clean. The stink is gone, but no real perfume smell to it.
A good resource for DIY green cleaning is the book Green Clean. Tons of great “recipes” for cleaning products. My homemade “windex” works much better than the real thing. We went green not only for the environment, but to keep chemicals away from the kids.