Sales of household cleaning products don’t increase much
each year. But sales of environmentally-friendly cleaners
are growing at a rate of 20% or more. And that’s gotten the
attention of some of the biggest companies in the cleaning
products business. Julie Grant reports:
Transcript
Sales of household cleaning products don’t increase much
each year. But sales of environmentally-friendly cleaners
are growing at a rate of 20% or more. And that’s gotten the
attention of some of the biggest companies in the cleaning
products business. Julie Grant reports:
Pam Whittington cleans for a living. Most of her customers
have cabinets full of cleaning products: bleach, Soft Scrub,
Windex. Whittington says those cleaners do a good job.
“They work well, but they’re strong. You get kind of ill.
Sometimes, I mean, I’ve physically gotten ill from cleaning
products, almost to where you have to leave the home
because it’s so strong.”
Whittington tries to use the more natural products, even
vinegar and baking soda, and says they work fine for most
jobs. But sometimes, there’s just too much soap scum, too
much grime – and she needs the big guns – like bleach.
“Oh, yes. Bleach is totally strong. But you need something
to kill the germs. And bleach does that. Or, vinegar does to
an effect, but still you have to get things clean. And bleach
whitens things, and gets rid of all the stains.”
One of companies best known for selling bleach is Clorox.
Matt Kohler is a brand manager for Clorox. He says they
wanted to make a more natural product line for years. But
when they tested the concept with consumers, few people
were interested in buying environmentally friendly cleaners.
“And really up until this year the market for green cleaners,
we weren’t seeing enough consumer interest to be able to
be able launch something that could sustain itself in the
market.”
But a couple of things happened last year that opened the
green door for Clorox. Kohler says the company’s scientists
came up with natural cleaners that worked as well the
regular cleaners. And something else happened. Believe it
or not, Kohler says Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth got people thinking more about environmental issues. So
much so, that for the first time many started worrying about
the chemicals in cleaning products.
“So there’s really this group of consumers out there, and it’s
growing and getting bigger every day, that are looking for
ways to live a greener lifestyle. And they’re just not satisfied
with the options that are currently available. So when we got
all that data together, we really realized the market is really
ready for a green cleaning product, and that Clorox is pretty
well positioned to come out with a product that will meet their
needs.”
Clorox has started stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart, Target,
and most supermarkets with GreenWorks. That’s their line
of ‘natural’ cleaners, made with things like coconut, lemon
oil, and corn-based ethanol. The Sierra Club environmental
group has endorsed the new products line. But others are
skeptical about Clorox’s motivation.
Alex Scranton is science director for a group called Women’s
Voices for the Earth. Last year she surveyed the ingredients
in the major household cleaners – looking for chemicals that
are dangerous to human health and the environment. She
found that the Clorox Company makes 15% of the worst
products on the market. She says it’s hypocritical for Clorox
to now call itself a ‘green’ company.
“Well, you know, this is the question we had when Clorox
released their GreenWorks product. They were very
pleased to make these new products that were effective
cleaners, were 99-percent natural, or naturally derived
ingredients. And so it begs the question: if you can do that
with your new products, can you in fact apply that technology
to your old products? Why sell both?”
Clorox says most people still want their bleach and their
Pinesol. And that the company will keep selling them as
long as people keep buying them. But Scranton wonders if
people would buy them if they knew what was in them. She
says most mainstream products don’t disclose all their
ingredients on the label. It’s not required by law.
“These companies can pretty much use any chemical they
want, with a few limitations in their products, without too
much regard for what the long term impact could be either
on the environment or on health.”
Scranton says if people understood how dangerous some of
the ingredients can be, it might really convince them to buy
alternative products. Clorox says it’s giving people a choice,
and will be watching sales of Greenworks carefully. But it
won’t stop selling products that people keep buying.
For The Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.