It Ain't Easy Bein' Green

Clearly my proclivity to dry cleaning and hair dye should be a dead give away that I'm not exactly a poster girl for Green Living, but I have been trying to figure out little ways here and there to start being a little more kind to the environment. From a selfish perspective, I totally believe that the amount of chemicals and fakey-fake stuff we use in our lives (and our foods) has to negatively impact our health, so I'm all for trying out products with friendlier ingredients.

Note: This may be one of the dorkiest entrees I've ever written, but the best part of writing a blog is I'm author, editor and publisher. Woo.

The good thing about shopping at Wally-world is that it makes going green affordable - many of the regular cleaning products I buy now offer "green" products that are negligible in their price differences. Are they really better for the environment? I don't know. As adamant as I am about food label reading, the whole "factual" realm of green products vs. the "you're a big fat sucker for marketing" realm still eludes me. But, it makes the ego feel good to use them, doesn't it?

WELL. Not if the end result is crappy. I bought Palmolive Eco dishwasher soap and was all "woohoo, I'm nice to the Earth." HARUMPH. My warmnfuzzy feelings were short lived.

See that label? Cleans to A Sparkly Shine?
FORESHADOWING, PEOPLE, I'M FORESHADOWING...

For weeks, I kept pulling spotty glasses and silverware out of my dishwasher, and couldn't figure out why. I finally realized it had started when I bought the new cleaner. I was home in Rochester and watched my mom pull a less than sparkly cup out of the dishwasher and lament over how their water seemed to be dirty... I looked under her sink and TA DA! Eco friendly dish cleaner letting her down too. A quick google search proves I'm not crazy - by and large, a healthy dose of white film seems to be the norm for other Palmolive Eco users out there.

Oh, hey house guests, welcome.
Don't mind our gross dinnerware.

So, I'm going back to the Cascade that pollutes our oceans and streams, until someone can point me in the direction of a dishwasher soap that is nice to Mother Earth AND makes my dishes sparkly clean. Yea, I said it. COME AND GET ME, EPA. Ok, really, please don't? But, is it too much to ask that a product that is eco-kind also works really good? Green homemaking FAIL.