Dishwashing Liquid- Who's Got the Best Label?

National Geographic's Green Guide had a good article on dish soap this month. They ranked them according to how completely the company discloses ingredients, so that the consumer might discern how many are plant-based, how many are harmful additives, etc. At the top of their "honesty" list was Seventh Generation's Dish Liquid, which got three "G's". At 2 (for using generic terms like 'preservative' or 'surfactant', although these were certified low- eco impact by an independent agency) were Clorox Green Works (Natural Dishwashing Liquid), Ecover (Dishwashing Liquid), and Planet (Ultra Dishwashing Liquid Gel).

Receiving 1 'G' for generic ingredient names and a lack of independent testing were Biokleen dish liquid, Earth Friendly Products (Dishmate), Method (Ultra Concentrated), and Mrs Meyers (Clean Day Dish Soap). D'oh!

The label vaguery doesn't necessarily mean that the companies in question have something to hide, but I'd encourage them to spell things out as much as possible. Trade secrets are important, sure, but so is knowing what we're buying.

Incidently, SG has coupons on its website, and you can stock up in bulk on Amazon.com

Clorox's Eco-friendly cleaning line

Ok, so I'd be a bad green blogger if I didn't mention that Clorox (who recently bought Burts Bees) has released a line of green cleaning products. They're called "Green Works" and the company brags that unlike other eco cleaning products, they work! (Er, if you go through this blog I haven't found many products that don't work fairly well. I'm still marveling over how clean my shower is if I spray it with Seventh Gen every time I use it.)

They have a separate website for the new products here. There is a section specifically and seriously devoted to defining what they mean by their terms "natural" etc, which I appreciate. I was laughing at the description under the bathroom cleaner of, once again, "coconut based cleaning agent". I've mentioned many a time how funny I find it that cleaning companies tiptoe around admitting to using "SLS" and "SLES" for foaming power, because of a sense that these ingredients have been linked to skin irritation and even cancer (provable or not, there is a green consumer bias against these ingredients as well as parabens, etc.)

I don't know. I like lemon essential oil (used in most of these), but I'm not swayed. These're not as cool sounding as some of the products I already use. Plus, Clorox is not generally a company I want to support. Aside from making generally non-eco friendly products, they still test on animals!
I'd rather people buy these than most mainstream cleaning products, but I'd also rather people support some of the brands linked to the right in this blog than Clorox.

I learned about this because Natural Health magazine gave the line a mention in their last issue.