Hey team, and welcome back to one5c! Most of the advice we serve up centers on the lifestyle tweaks that can help each of us trim down our personal contributions to planet-warming emissions. (That’s the seemingly subtle but actually quite important difference between the climate, specifically, and the environment, broadly.) Of course, we think—and talk—about other stuff, too: like how we handle the array of potions and chemicals that help keep our homes so fresh and so clean. —Corinne
HOW TO PROPERLY DISPOSE OF OLD CLEANING SUPPLIES
By By Molly Glick, additional reporting by Audrey Chan
As spring cleaning approaches, and you prepare to wipe away the dust from the seemingly never-ending winter, you may notice a small stash of extra sprays and wipes you no longer need or want. Perhaps, for instance, you’re trying to adopt a more natural approach to household scrub-a-dubbing. While it’s tempting to throw it all in the bin, it’s crucial to dispose of cleaning products responsibly to reduce their potential impact on surrounding ecosystems—and your neighbors.
Many popular cleaning formulas contain ingredients that can be toxic, corrosive, or flammable. When we chuck sprays, powders, and wipes into our regular household waste or pour them down the drain, these ingredients can make their way to flora, fauna, and potentially back to our own sinks. For example, lots of cleaners include the compound sodium lauryl sulfate because it’s really good at dissolving oily substances, but it can deform and even kill aquatic life. Ammonia, meanwhile, is common in many cleaning products and, when it leaks out of landfills, can create oxygen “dead” zones in water sources that may kill animals.
The first order of business for reducing downstream effects is to cut out waste to begin with. If that’s not possible to use up every last drop—again, maybe you’re switching to a less-chemical-y routine—there are options. You can give away items to friends or family, check if local organizations such as homeless shelters or churches nearby will accept them, or head to local Facebook groups or the Buy Nothing app. If none of that works out, here’s what to know about safely tossing the items that keep your home sparkling and squeaky clean.
What to do with old cleaning products
Not every cleaner poses a potential hazard. Vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and some mild soaps can go down the drain without a fight. Other cleaning supplies can be dangerous—some even have the potential to destroy metal and burn skin, catch fire, and react violently to water or air. When you no longer want these items, they’re considered hazardous waste. Here are the do’s and don’ts of getting rid of those half-empties:
Do:
Consult the pros. The safest way to manage cleaning leftovers is to bring them to local hazardous waste collection facilities for disposal. To find one near you, you can search Earth911’s database for locations that accept household cleaners.
Read labels. Make sure to read a cleaning product’s label for disposal instructions. If the guidance is unclear or you can’t find any, call up your local waste disposal facility to get their advice. It may require special handling if it contains particularly toxic ingredients.
Protect yourself. When working with particularly hazardous substances that are marked with words like “danger” or “flammable,” make sure to not inhale them or get them on your skin. The label should tell you whether you need personal protective equipment, such as eye protection and gloves.
Check the recycling numbers on empties. Take a peek at the number on the plastic container to determine whether your municipal program accepts that type of plastic. Many cleaning products come packaged in No. 2 plastic, which is recycled in most areas, but a lot also come in No. 5, which isn’t generally accepted at most recyclers around the country. Empty glass and metal containers can likely go in the blue bin, but different waste managers handle aerosol vessels differently, so check before plopping ’em in the recycling bin.
Buy safer products next time. When replenishing your undersink area, consider alternatives that cut down on single-use containers and toxic chemicals in the first place. Dissolvable cleaning tablets, for one, nix both issues and are generally free of harsh ingredients. Or you can try concocting cleaning solutions at home to have full control over what nontoxic ingredients go into them.
Don’t:
Jump to dump. Sending solutions of questionable impact down the drain can cause lots of damage in the long run, such as harm to marine life and drinking water. Pouring out cleaners that contain bleach, phosphates, ammonia, or petroleum-based chemicals can also prove harmful for households with a septic system. This advice applies to both liquids and powders.
Mix up chemicals. Combining chemicals can lead to potential injury or illness. Mixing bleach or any bleach-containing product, for example, with anything containing ammonia and acids can create toxic gases called chloramines, which can cause symptoms such as coughing, nausea, and shortness of breath. And combining hydrogen peroxide with vinegar can produce what’s called peracetic acid, which may irritate your lungs, throat, eyes, and skin. You can find a more comprehensive list of items to never mix here.
THE ROUNDUP
IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK
Starbucks is swapping out plastic cups for paper ones in 580 stores across 14 states. Their reasoning? Depends on who you ask. Officially, spokespeople say it’s to comply with local ordinances around single-use plastics. But if you ask independent experts and anti-plastic advocates, it’s a quiet admission that Starbucks’ “recyclable” cups really weren’’t that recyclable to begin with.
Fossil fuel giant BP is dropping its renewable energy investments in favor of increasing annual oil and gas spending by $10 billion, according to Reuters. It isn’t alone: Several other European energy companies, including Shell and Equinor, have locked in with oil and gas in the past several months.
The Trump administration is investigating if California’s long-awaited high-speed rail project is “worthy of a continual investment.” The High Speed Rail Alliance is already spoiling to fight the Department of Transportation on the matter, which is fair: The science is clear that public transit like rail is a win for human health, the planet, and the economy.
Farmers and environmental nonprofits sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the recent removal of climate-change data resources from its websites. “USDA’s irrational climate change purge doesn’t just hurt farmers, researchers, and advocates. It also violates federal law several times over,” says Jeffrey Stein, an attorney from Earthjustice associated with the case.
If U.K. residents each cut out two doner kebabs’ worth of meat a week that would bring the nation’s emissions on track to net-zero goals by the end of next decade, according to research published this week by the country’s independent Climate Change Committee. Stateside, one study found that swapping half of our meat-based protein with alternative sources could slash the U.S.’s carbon output as much as grounding all domestic flights for a year.