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Lifestyle /

Four Cleaning Brands for a Toxic Chemical-Free Home

February 23, 2023By Megan Doyle

If you’re looking to eliminate toxic chemicals from your cleaning routine, plenty of brands are creating products that are better for the planet and your health. Below, we’ve outlined four sustainably-minded UK-based cleaning brands to check out. 

Interested in reducing the chemicals you’re using day to day? Take a look inside your cleaning supplies cupboard — it will reveal a host of toxic ingredients. Phthalates, chlorine, ammonia and bleach are just some of the nasty chemicals lurking in common cleaning products, air fresheners and detergents.

Not only do these toxic ingredients get washed away into waterways and contaminate the natural environment, but there is a whole host of health issues that can occur from exposure. They can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory system, are linked to a wide range of cancers, can cause liver and kidney damage, and can disrupt the endocrine system.

The worst part is, they’re totally unnecessary for a clean, hygienic home. If you’re looking to eliminate toxic chemicals from your cleaning routine, plenty of brands are creating products that are better for the planet and your health. Below, we’ve outlined four sustainably-minded UK-based cleaning brands to check out.

BOWER COLLECTIVE

Bower Collective is a conscious brand selling refillable household products for your laundry, cleaning, kitchen and more. Focusing on natural ingredients, Bower Collective fragrances its products with essential oils instead of synthetic chemicals. The cleaning products are free from toxic ingredients like parabens (a hormone-disrupting preservative) and Sodium laureth sulfate.

Bower Collective is named after the Bower bird, which is known to collect plastic waste to decorate its nest. The key selling point of the brand is its plastic-free refills and reusable dispensers. In a bid to reduce plastic waste, once your refill pouches are empty, you can send them back to be recycled or refilled. Bower Collective also sells cleaning accessories, toiletry paper, personal care products like shampoos and soaps, and much more. The brand is a B-Corp and its products are vegan and cruelty-free, so they’re never tested on animals.

SEEP

Ever thought about the impact that cleaning cloths and sponges have on the environment when they’re thrown away? The founder of Seep, Laura Harnett, certainly has. After noticing that most cleaning tools on the market are made from virgin plastics that are quickly thrown away after a few uses, she decided to create her own line of cleaning tools. With a range that includes rubber gloves, sponges, scourers, dish bridges and bin bags, SEEP products don’t contain plastic and several are even home-compostable. The gloves are made from natural rubber with a cotton lining and the sponges are made from cellulose wood pulp and loofah fibre.

SEEP products are designed to be more long-lasting and hard-wearing than other cleaning tools on the market, so you can keep using them for longer. A 2021 customer survey revealed that 70% of SEEP customers composted their used products, which the company says has diverted over tonnes of waste from landfills. In 2022, the company became B-Corp certified. Want to try SEEP for yourself?

Shop the brand on the Forward Lab.

SPLOSH

Splosh is a Welsh brand that creates cleaning products with a difference. Once customers have bought a Splosh refillable bottle, they can subscribe to receive refill pouches. The company also takes back these pouches and reuses or recycles them. The team is currently testing out how to build circular products made from old refill pouches, including powder scoops for your laundry.

The primary ingredient in supermarket cleaning products is water. To give customers more bang for their buck, each refill pouch contains a concentrate of the product which is about 3 to 4 times stronger than supermarket alternatives. This means you can add water from your tap, save money and buy fewer pouches in the long run.

Sposh cleaning supplies are all vegan-friendly and cruelty-free. The company uses a high proportion of natural ingredients and is transparent about the synthetic ingredients (plus their function) in each product description, meaning you have a better idea about what you’re using. All ingredients for Splosh products are sourced from the UK and mainland Europe and produced in Wales.

KINN Living

KINN Living was founded in 2017 out of a desire to create safe cleaning products using plant-based and non-toxic ingredients. Gentle on the skin and on the planet, KINN is certified vegan and uses essential oils to add fragrance to each cleaning product.

In an effort to reduce waste, the KINN team has condensed some of its products into 30ml tinctures that can be decanted into recyclable aluminium bottles — just add water and you’re good to go. Other product refills come in recyclable pouches.

KINN products are free from toxic ingredients like parabens, phthalates, musks, toluene and phosphates, usually found in supermarket cleaning supplies. The brand is transparent about its ingredients, breaking down the complex science into easy-to-understand descriptions.

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