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We put the green rhetoric to the test. Hi. I'm Sue Moore, Managing Editor of the magazine. Welcome to our first edition of Green Home Living. When we decided to devote the first issue to spring cleaning I suddenly became interested in the possibilities of making cleaning products at home, although in the back of my mind I was afraid the process would be too involved. It would become another arts and crafts project I would never finish. I imagined a complicated process starting with the making of soap and somehow ending inexplicably with the hand rolling of candles. I was setting myself up for failure. But when I looked into it I found that making effective, environmentally considerate cleaning agents was apparently quite easy. All you needed was warm water in combination with borax and/or washing soda. Borax? Washing soda? I seemed to remember Borax as one of the newer elements on the periodic chart. Bx was it? Maybe I was thinking of Boron. Anyway, where was I going to get Borax? And washing soda? I couldn't think of anything more generic sounding than washing soda. "Excuse me, where might I find the washing soda?" I imagined asking the twenty-something stocker at Safeway whose only response would be a blank stare. Surely the last person to use washing soda was my grandmother who was born in 1896 and lived on a farm in rural Montana. A Google search on Borax and washing soda assured me that both products were readily available in the laundry section at most supermarkets so I marched down to my local Safeway (Market at Church Street in San Francisco, CA) in hot pursuit. I quickly found the detergent and laundry aisle and hurried past the Lemon Joy, the Ultra, the Palmolive to the detergents section. Tide, Cheer, Ultra Cheer, Ultra Cheer with fresh scent crystals. It was all becoming a blur. Gain, Whisk, All, Fab. Suddenly I was into bleach. Clorox. Lemon Scent Clorox. Safeway's eponymous bleach. But no borax. No washing soda. My heart sank. And then I spotted it! Perched on the top shelf sandwiched between the bleach and the charcoal briquettes stood the boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax. Right on! And next to it was the Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (which I had initially mistook for Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent because of the similar packaging). There was only one size and one brand of each but whatever (1). Elated, I headed for the cash register. Then suddenly it struck me-where were the eco-products? I checked the aisle again closely. Besides the borax and the washing soda in the whole of the laundry and dishwashing detergent aisle of that particular Safeway in San Francisco--liberal eco-centric San Francisco--there was only one eco-alternative product available. It was the 50 fluid ounce jug of Planet laundry detergent! It was on sale, limit three, and there was only one left. I realized the magnitude of the task at hand. What was it going to take to get three, four, ten environmentally conscious choices into the detergent shelves at Safeway? What was it going to take to get green products into the mainstream? How are people going to express their preference for such products when they are not readily available? Again I was reconvinced of the mission of Green Home -- these products have just got to be more easily obtainable. Anyway, back to the task at hand. Does this Borax and washing soda stuff really work? According to the claims on each box between the two of them these substances can clean just about everything and remove almost any kind of spot with enough pre-soaking. We're talking wine, grease, olive oil, wax, lipstick, crayon, fruit juice, soft drinks, motor oil, ring around the collar. I felt a strange tingle, as if I'd discovered the holy grail of cleaning. I sifted through the laundry basket and found a beautiful white cotton tablecloth that had been particularly hard hit during a dinner party several months ago. It had lingered in the bottom of the basket because I didn't really know how to approach cleaning it and more to the point I didn't want to come face-to-face with the fact that most likely I had ruined it. Though scarred with red wine, coffee and a little olive oil, the most problematic stain was from the drippings of some beeswax candles that had somehow managed to quietly slide down the candlesticks and spread out all over the tablecloth like a lava flow without drawing the attention of one single guest. I remembered being grateful the next morning that nothing had caught on fire. In any case this tablecloth was to be the litmus test. So confident was I in these heirloom cleaning products that I began to smear other things all over the tablecloth-- lipstick, raspberry freezer jam, more coffee, more olive oil. I set it outside in the sun to dry and set. Then I felt a sudden pang of regret. I felt like the scientist who has just injected himself with the disease to prove his yet untested cure. What if it doesn't work? To find out what happened to Sue's Table Cloth, tune in again next month for the conclusion to her column, "So I tried it...", in the June 2005 issue of Green Living Magazine. Endnote: (1) Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda- 3 lb 7oz box, $ 2.49, box made from 100% recycled paperboard with minimum 35% post consumer content. 20 Mule Team Borax -4lb 12oz box, $ 4.49, box apparently not made from any recycled materials. Recipe to Make Your Own All-Purpose Cleaner: 1/2 cup washing soda Wash wearing rubber gloves and then rinse. Note: washing soda is sodium carbonate and belongs in the same family as baking soda. However, it has a pH of 11 and is much more caustic. In concentrated doses washing soda can remove paint and wax! Be sure to wear rubber gloves when using washing soda. Do not use on aluminum or fiberglass. Be sure to follow all manufacturers instructions. Recipe for Making Your Own Laundry Detergent: 1 cup soap
flakes * Mix the soap flakes in a pan with 3 pints of water over medium heat, until it all dissolves, roughly 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the washing soda and Borax. Mix until everything thickens, another 3 minutes or so, then remove from heat. Put 1 quart of hot water in a 2 gallon bucket, then add the soap mixture you just made. Mix well. Now fill the bucket with the mixture with cold water. Stir until well blended. It will thicken and separate as it cools. Stir or shake well before using. Use 1/2 cup for each load, or more for very dirty items. Note: washing soda is sodium carbonate and belongs in the same family as baking soda. However it has a pH of 11 and is much more caustic. In concentrated doses washing soda can remove paint and wax! Be sure to wear rubber gloves when using washing soda. Do not use on aluminum or fiberglass. Be sure to follow all manufacturers instructions. An average gallon of laundry detergent is around $5.00. This recipe is environmentally friendly, and costs about 25 cents per gallon (1/20th the cost!), so you save the green in two ways! *Soap flakes turned out to be harder to find than either borax or washing soda. Ivory stopped making soap flakes in 1993, the last major manufacturer to do so. Grating any pure soap, such as Castile (e.g. Dr. Bronners) works fine. I used my Microplane grater (available at kitchen specialty stores like Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma) the greatest grater ever made and achieved a very light fluffy soap flake. Note: Green Home does not sell either borax or washing soda because they are very heavy and very readily available all over the country. It is not environmentally sound to ship products like this via the Internet, so at the moment, we don't. Please write us if you can't find it in your local store, and we may change our policy and carry a limited amount of these two items.
Disclaimer: Green Home.com does not warrant and shall have no liability for information provided in this newsletter. Each individual person, fabric, or material may react differently to a particular suggested use. It is recommended that before you begin to use any formula, you read the directions carefully and test it first. Should you have any health care-related questions or concerns, please consult with your physician or other health care provider.
To find out what happened to Sue's Table Cloth, tune in again next month for the conclusion to her column, "So I tried it...", in the summer issue of Green Living Magazine.
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