Day 21

Clean

SPONSORED BY DR. BRONNER’S

OVERVIEW

“I feel more confident than ever that the power to save the planet rests with the individual consumer.”
~ Denis Hayes, Founder of the Earth Day Network, Coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970

Your dishes are piled high, your room is a mess, and the mirror in your bathroom is covered in toothpaste. Sigh, the time to clean has come! But before you reach for the conventional cleaning products lurking in your cabinet, take a second to think about what’s inside of them. Like the products you use on your body and the food you eat, conventional cleaning products are laden with unhealthy chemicals. Cleaning may not be fun, but it’s even worse when the ingredients in your products leave harmful chemical residue in place of dirt and grime. If you want a truly clean space, it’s time to green your cleaning routine.

Conventional cleaning products include a plethora of chemicals that harm the environment. VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), like ammonia, evaporate and contribute to indoor air pollution, as well as outdoor smog. When we wash ingredients like nitrogen and phosphorous down the drain, they flood waterways with unregulated levels of chemical nutrients, which cause unnatural plant growth, deplete the oxygen in the water supply, kill fish, and lead to birth defects in aquatic wildlife. Those same chemicals – which are unsafe even in very low doses – often make their way into our bodies. This is not only through drinking water, but also by inhaling them while we use them. Individually, these chemicals are linked to respiratory problems, reproductive harm, cancer, and other serious health issues.

Fortunately, many companies make safe and effective soaps and cleaning products. In fact, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has an entire database of information about these companies and products. When companies are transparent about ingredients and business practices, you can clean with confidence while protecting human and environmental health. Check out Women’s Voices for the Earth’s Deep Clean Report to learn about the effect of chemicals used in everyday cleaning products and how you can avoid them.

It’s also very simple (and economical) to make your own cleaning products from common household items like baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and organic essential oils. Check out the Bronner Mom blog and the TG Clean Pinterest board to find some great DIY recipes, that work! There are plenty of non-toxic, biodegradable, and effective cleaning products for you to use, so now the hardest part of cleaning is actually doing it!

CHALLENGE

Green

20 POINTS

Think

Remember on Day 9 you learned that no government agency was making sure your personal care products were safe – Well, this is the same issue with our cleaning products. Unfortunately, there is no transparency in the cleaning product industry! Companies are not required to list ingredients on labels, so we wind up exposing ourselves to largely undisclosed toxins. As consumers, we must be informed in order to make healthy choices and demand that companies make human and environmental health a top priority.

Challenge

Want to learn how to decode labels? EWG has you covered!

Brush up with EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning

What are three key pieces of information that you learned from looking through this resource that will help you choose healthier cleaning products in the future?
Share two facts about conventional cleaning products that surprised you.
Tell us in a few sentences why you think cleaning green in your home matters.

Deliverables

Upload a PDF Document with you responses. Please include your name (or team name), username, email address, and school.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit all entries as PDFs – no word or pages docs.
Please save filenames using the following format: firstname_lastname_challengeday_challengelevel.pdf (ex: kasie_shils_day1_green.pdf)
Do not include # or spaces in filenames
Please be sure to include all content for your submission in one doc
Do not upload a file bigger than 5 MB
You will get a confirmation on screen that your submission uploaded correctly (green) or that it failed (red) and to try again.
If your total points do not change, your submission did not load correctly and you will have to try again. You can see your point total by opening the Edit Profile tab on the bottom nav bar. Your point total will be at the top of the page.
Send any questions you have to info@turninggreen.org
Don’t forget to post about the challenge and your learnings/doings on social media and tag us on Facebook @TurningGreen, on Twitter @TurningGreenOrg, and on Instagram @TurningGreenOrg and use #PGC2017.

The deadline for entering this challenge has past.

Greener

40 POINTS

Think

More than 80,000 chemicals are unregulated by the federal government, including most of those in common household cleaning products. Chances are that your conventional cleaning products contain substances which, when inhaled or absorbed through the skin, cause serious health problems.

Challenge

Gather all of the cleaning and laundry products in your home, apartment or dorm.

Take a photo and caption it with the product names and brands.
Select one of these products and list ingredients and retail price.
Search the product on EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning and use the “label decoder” to define the ingredients.

What is the product rating?
What are the top three ingredients and their individual ratings?
What are three adverse health impacts that you learned about the product ingredients?

Select a greener alternative to the product.

Take a photo or screenshot of your green alternative and caption it with ingredients and retail price.

Create a visual side-by-side comparison of your conventional product and it’s green alternative with all of the requested info.

Will you consider making the switch and would you recommend it to your friends? Why or why not?
Create a post for social media with a side-by-side comparison about these two products and what you think people should know when they reach for conventional cleaning products.

Deliverables

Upload a PDF document with your responses and photos. Include a screenshot of your social media post. Please include your name (or team name), username, email address and school.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit all entries as PDFs – no word or pages docs.
Please save filenames using the following format: firstname_lastname_challengeday_challengelevel.pdf (ex: kasie_shils_day1_greener.pdf)
Do not include # or spaces in filenames
Please be sure to include all content for your submission in one doc
Do not upload a file bigger than 5 MB
You will get a confirmation on screen that your submission uploaded correctly (green) or that it failed (red) and to try again.
If your total points do not change, your submission did not load correctly and you will have to try again. You can see your point total by opening the Edit Profile tab on the bottom nav bar. Your point total will be at the top of the page.
Send any questions you have to info@turninggreen.org
Don’t forget to post about the challenge and your learnings/doings on social media and tag us on Facebook @TurningGreen, on Twitter @TurningGreenOrg, and on Instagram @TurningGreenOrg and use #PGC2017.

The deadline for entering this challenge has past.

Greenest

60 POINTS

Think

Bathrooms get grimy quickly, especially when shared with roommates or even a whole dorm floor. Using safe cleaning products is especially important in spaces that need to be cleaned often.

Challenge

Find a recipe online for a simple multipurpose cleaner, or a cleaner meant for toilets, sinks and showers. Check out Women’s Voices for the Earth or Lisa Bronner’s blog for ideas.

Purchase or borrow the ingredients you need. It should not cost much and you can even ask your roommates to chip in! Don’t forget to reuse a spray bottle or other container, and find a zero waste option for scrubbing or application.

Go ahead and make your new cleaner.

Use it to clean your bathroom or other space. How does it smell compared to the products you have used in the past?

Post a photo of your DIY cleaning product and the recipe to Instagram and caption it with one reason why cleaning green is important to human and environmental health. Tag @TurningGreenOrg, @women4earth, @drbronner and use the hashtags #PGC2017 and #GreenClean.

Deliverables

Upload a PDF Document with your responses, photos, and a full report on how your DIY process went. Include a screenshot of your social media post. Please include your name (or team name), username, email address and school.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit all entries as PDFs – no word or pages docs.
Please save filenames using the following format: firstname_lastname_challengeday_challengelevel.pdf (ex: kasie_shils_day1_greenest.pdf)
Do not include # or spaces in filenames
Please be sure to include all content for your submission in one doc
Do not upload a file bigger than 5 MB
You will get a confirmation on screen that your submission uploaded correctly (green) or that it failed (red) and to try again.
If your total points do not change, your submission did not load correctly and you will have to try again. You can see your point total by opening the Edit Profile tab on the bottom nav bar. Your point total will be at the top of the page.
Send any questions you have to info@turninggreen.org
Don’t forget to post about the challenge and your learnings/doings on social media and tag us on Facebook @TurningGreen, on Twitter @TurningGreenOrg, and on Instagram @TurningGreenOrg and use #PGC2017.

The deadline for entering this challenge has past.

TODAY’S PRIZES

up to 10 winners from the greener challenge will receive:

Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Sugar Soap
Dr. Bronner’s Rose Bar Soap
Dr. Bronner’s Lavender Hand Sanitizing Spray
Dr. Bronner’s Reusable Chico Bag
NaturOli Soap Nuts
Full Circle Home Dish Clothes

Full Circle Home Dish Brush
Full Circle Home Dust Brush and Pan
If You Care Dish Gloves
If You Care Sponge Clothes
Natural Value Facial Tissues

up to 10 winners from the greenest challenge will receive:

Dr. Bronner’s Organic Peppermint 18-in-One Liquid Castile Soap
Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Toothpaste
Dr. Bronner’s Organic Orange Ginger Lip Balm
Dr. Bronner’s Reusable Chico Bag
Radius Dental Floss
Everyone Hand Sanitizer Wipes
Full Circle Home Glass Cleaning Brush

Full Circle Home Soap Dispenser & Dish Brush
Full Circle Home Stick Em Towel
Skoy Cloths
Skoy Scrub
Green Shield Organic Laundry Detergent
Green Shield Organic Wipes
Moso Natural Moso Bag Mini