FEATURE: Turning Ecover a new leaf
Last night I went out shopping and intentended to re-stock my cupboards with nothing but green essentials.
Up until this point I have been introducing products into different areas in my day to day life - what I feed to my body - organic, sustainable and fair trade and now conservation grade foods and what I feed to my skin.
However due to poor finances I hadn't yet tackled other areas. As it was pay day - I hoped to replace everything, now without being overly self critical I had some successes in so much as I switched over to Ecover for my laundry needs. (I live on my own and manage to get away with doing one laundry load a fortnight! I'm small - my clothes are small - what more can I say - I am clean - honest!) So it had taken a while to get through my branded product.
Next on the list will be the household cleaners (I wouldn't be very green now - if I just chucked all the bad products out, unfinished now would I?)
The product and packaging for Ecover all looks good - I will have to let you know mid week next week as to performance!
I was not able to buy half of the items I needed in an eco version, so I am going to research my options for Eco Supermarkets - I am aware of one in SW London - but there certainly isn't one in my neighbourhood and I would not want to be the cause of more pollution to get there!
On a positive note those guys at Ecover provide a great product in good packaging - the consumer can 're-fill' the empty when it is done! Ingenious!
You may wonder (as I did) why this is not more widely promoted. Well it is due to the resources of the support of health food stores who provide the re-filling service. I could not find any near to where I live - but as I have to travel to SW London daily (on the tube) for work - I will get it filled there.
But I will be making a nuisance of myself at all my nearby health food shops and recommend that YOU do the same - to 'lobby' them to provide and promote this service!
Green hugs and sweet smelling laundry!
Becky
OrganicsNow
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posted by Anonymous @ 11:00 AM
11 Comments:
Hi Becky
Small steps is the key for sure...disposing safely of bad products is better than using them and letting them enter the groundwater etc. As far as I am aware your local council should provide the facility for safe disposal of bleaches etc at your local tip. In theory.
As for polluting more I think the extra time is more of an issue...we are all busy enough...but if you get the chance to shop in SW London at the eco market then you may as well do so...
As for the refills...I had no idea...what a great idea...will look into this myself.
Look forward to finding out what you think of Ecover.
Namaste
Al
EVery little step does count, that's for sure. I will include a post from my blog, also illustrating how our daily decisions can have a huge impact on the environment.
BFN, G
http://veggiesyarnsandtails.wordpress.com/2006/07/09/save-a-tree/
I don't know how you feel about shopping for Ecover stuff at supermarkets, but it does work out a bit cheaper. Waitrose recently arrived in Scotland and I'm really impressed with their range of eco cleaning products and toiletries.
I'd rather buy them at an independent shop but if it's a choice between buying them from a supermarket because they are cheaper and not at all, I'll go for the supermarket option.
I've been using most of the products in the Ecover range for over a year now and think they are just fine. Our supermarkets stock most of them.
I should probably find out if refills are possible in the health food shop in a neighbouring town, but I don't get there too often and carrying too much back to the car would be a problem.
It is true that Ecover do offer a refill service.
The link above explains more but refill is available for:
* Washing Up Liquid (both varieties)
* Fabric Conditioner
* Laundry Liquid
* Multi-Surface Cleaner
Wow! How cool! Now to find a stockist near me...
The nearest one is about a 15 minute drive away from my Mum's house...which still makes more sense as I can shop for other stuff at the same time and prevent more plastic being needed, produced and transported.
Cool! Needs more stores to do refills though...
Will call my local store to find out why they do not participate...
Namaste
Al
Our local health food shop Food for Living or Ecolocal is great .. they have the refill scheme.
To be honest I've always taken it for granted and didn't think it was that unusual as I've used it for years (my son wants to refill a bottle every time we go in... we don't use that much cleaning produce!)
Hi Jane
You are so lucky ;) Amazing what we take for granted...
Loving ecolocal by the way...
Namaste
Al
Since I buy things in bulk from Community Foods, I am able supply people at Sanford Housing Co-op (where I live) with an Ecover refil service :) (and I'm as cheap as the supermarkets too!)
Still, I'm investigating moving to supplying Clearspring instead because I'm not particularly comfortable with the fact that Ecover is owned by Group 4, the world's second largest security firm, who've got the contract for Guantanamo Bay!
More info on Ecover:
So, I'm not sure if Group 4 Securitas does actually own Ecover, but Jorgen Philip Sorensen does (see ethiscore entry here)
Jorgen Philip Sorensen's grandfather founded Securitas AB and in the 1930's and "Sorensen was sent to England in the 1960s to extend the empire. He founded and built up the Midlands-based Group 4".
Until last month he was still the chairman of the board of Group 4 Securitas and he is still the chair of Ecover (I just called them to double check - interestingly, the guy I spoke to hadn't heard of Group 4 and didn't know what they did - he said he's gonna to call Head Office and get back to me with more info...)
A bit more info:
I just noticed that it tells you Jorgen owns the company on the Ecover about page:
"under the ownership of Jørgen Philip-Sørensen CBE, has developed into the world’s largest producer of ecological detergents and cleansing products"
http://www.ecover.com/gb/en/About/
Turns out that it looks like you are right on this one Josef and that Jorgen Philip Sorenson does own Ecover & Group 4
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