Oct 27 2009
Choice of Dish Soap makes Big Impact with Smaller Footprint
“If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 25oz petroleum-based dishwashing liquid with ’seventh generation’s’ plant-derived product, we could save enough oil to heat and cool 7,400 U.S. homes for a year.”(www.seventhgeneration.com)
Did you know that most dishwashing soaps are petroleum based? Yep, you are washing your hands and dishes with crude oil my friends. Pleasant thought isn’t it?
When I began looking around for ways to “green up” my life, the soaps I use came up time and again. I came across seventh generation Natural Dish Liquid and became an instant fan of their packaging, their name and the quote shown on the bottle from which the name is derived, “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” That statement said a lot to me about the type of product I was buying. The statement declared they were not simply looking at short-term profits (though I am certain they have to), but intentionally considering their long-term effects to our health and the environment with the products they create and supply to the American populus. There was another statement as well which is quoted at the top of this post. Wow, my purchase will help free up that much oil for energy? Is that possible? With visions of green fields and saving the world from an impending energy crisis running through my head, I purchased a bottle.
The name and quote were the inspiration to initially buy, but the product itself is what kept it on the shopping list. Dawn and Palmolive don’t have anything on this soap. Besides its superb effectiveness, Seventh Generation dish soap lasts for a long time. You simply don’t need to use as much for a nice sudsy sink of water, and the dishes rinse much easier requiring less water, and less of your time. The National Geographic also rated this product as the greenest of the “green” dish soaps they highlighted in their 2009 Green Buying Guide, mostly due to the transparency of Seventh Generation’s product ingredients.
Do one simple thing that will make a big impact. Replace your next dish soap purchase with a bottle of the Seventh Generation and let me know what you think. Even if you don’t like it you can sleep soundly at night, knowing that your one purchase may have saved “…enough oil to heat and cool 7,400 U.S. homes for a year.”
