Look after the planet with healthier cleaners

A check of your household products is a really important step if you want to be kinder to the planet, and that applies particularly to the cleaners we use at home.

That check is exactly what Malcolm and Melanie Rands, the co-founders of ecostore, did before starting ecostore. One of their goals was to keep the water leaving their place as pure as the water that flowed in. That meant re-thinking the household products they were using, to make sure they weren't putting any harmful chemicals down the drain when they cleaned the house, or did dishes and laundry.

Ecostore has carried on this commitment by following the precautionary principle, preferring to leave out ingredients that might be harmful to waterways or aquatic life.

If you want to use healthier cleaners, there are many rooms in the house where you can check the products you use. Take the laundry, for example. Some of these products may have optical whiteners, which make clothes appear whiter and brighter. But they can be damaging to aquatic life when they rinse from the washing machine into waterways, and they don't readily biodegrade.

If you want to re-assess your cleaning products, check the ingredient list for benzalkonium chloride. It's one that can be damaging to birds, fish and aquatic invertebrates.

And some dishwashing liquids can contain potentially harmful chemicals like cocamidopropyl betaine (a surfactant); or synthetic perfumes and dyes.

Do consider carrying out a household product check and maybe swap some of these for healthier cleaners. You can check out ecostore's home care product range here.