Best eco-friendly home cleaning products available in Urban India

Cleanliness is next to godliness, and a major part of health, hygiene, and Indian culture, despite what the look of the landfills and garbage dumps found every four kilometers may say. And just like charity it begins at home, even if we don’t know how to clean our homes in a sustainable manner or often why we even should. After all, not all chemicals are toxins, but what about ensuring the formulation is safe for marine life? Does not pollute our waste system or harm our house help? After all, if we turn many a conventional cleaner, they will be labelled hazardous. Plus, they are often packed in plastic, and while plastic is a great material for multiple uses, especially when dealing with slippery hands, do we want to encourage plastic pollution with every purchase?

For the wider world, we know must not litter, and that we should ideally separate our waste so that it can be processed easily, with our wet waste being composted or made into bioenzymes when possible, and our dry waste being upcycled at places like Ecokari or recycled in our city’s recycling facilities. We can organize river-cleanups when we have the resources, or learn about and maybe even support projects which are helping introduce sustainable waste management infrastructure and techniques.

All this begins in our kitchens, dustbins, and homes. So let us look at some eco-friendly, fair-trade, and sustainable cleaning products for our homes.

Eco-friendly Home Cleaning Brands in India

While there are many great realistically eco-friendly cleaning brands like Herbal Strategi, which are highly rated on Zoobop, or Arani Eco-Solutions, Good Karma, and Goli Soda, with Arani being recommended by many climate advocates like Sonalika Bashin, here are the three eco-friendly brands I have personally used for my cleaning needs.

Bare Necessities Zero-Waste Solutions

An award-winning brand, Bare Necessities rated 4.0 on the Zoobop score and offers a dishwash liquid, handwash, and a multi-surface cleaner in the home care range. It has vegan products, and most of its formulations are available as powders, which have numerous benefits.

First, you don’t pay for water which you have readily available at home. Second, the product needs less packaging and thus, more of it can be transported at a time. Most of their packaging is also paper, which while compostable, is not a good single-use item, unless recycled or tree-free or sustainably sourced or a byproduct of a green industry, since it does come from trees, the cutting of which reduces our carbon sinks and makes putting the breaks on climate change harder. Yet, it is better than single-used plastic in the sense that it doesn’t support the fossil fuel industry nor does it release microplastics, but plastic, especially when reused, can require less resources. And Bare Necessities shines here with their refill and return program. They also have glass bottles, which while tough to handle, is still a reusable and recyclable material.

This zero-waste brand even keeps microplastics out of its ingredients and ink! And they ensure their suppliers are fair-trade! Plus they are available on BlinkIt, which while not the greenest, is where many of us shop in a pinch.

While all these perks definitely justify their price-point, if you are looking for plant-based cleaning solutions that good for the planet, and the wallet, we have an option for you.

Javi Ecocare

Recommended by climate advocate TrashySister or Vidhi Aadhikari, Javi Ecocare is a brand that listens to its consumers. Not only is it highly affordable, with its home care range having products below Rs. 100 for 500-1L of product after dissolving in water. Their formulation is plant based, and like Bare Necessities, they sell powder-based products. TrashySister called them, highly effective, despite noting the fabric cleaner could be stronger. While they aren’t available locally yet, if you care to plan in advance, these are good, and we have reached out regarding whether they adhere to fair-trade policies.

But if you prefer a more popular brand with a high rating on Zoobop, a site that rates sustainable items on various aspects, then who doesn’t know…

Beco

While they are known for their bamboo toothbrushes, and one must question why they have single use bamboo tissues (except for medical usage), they offer a wide range of sustainable products like reusable cloth towels, detergents, dishwash and more. While they all come in plastic packaging, re-fill packets are also available on BlinkIt, reducing plastic bottle usage. Beco claims their products are home compostable, which is important to ask whenever a brand says their products are compostable since many greenwash us with industrial level compostable products knowing we might not have access to that. Zoobop rates them at 4 and Beco claims their packaging is eco-friendly but says not much, beyond recycled paper based packaging. The brand uses plant-based formulations and aims to be eco-friendly, regardless of where it stands when compared to conventional products or the lack of an official fair-trade certification, despite their ethical values. We have reached out regarding this.

But for my floor and furniture cleaning needs, I have started using something different. And I am not a fan of DIY but climate advocates claim this product is 99% effective, and it helps manage my organic waste. Yes, I am taking about bioenzyme.

Sustainable Waste Management Solution and Cleaning Product

Bioenzymes are cleaning and garden products made from organic waste. Yes, despite the smell, they are cleaning products, and can be made using frozen or fresh organic peels of fruits and vegetables or flowers, mixed with molasses or gud aka jaggery, and 10 parts water. Experts say you cannot use sugar in this. Just put everything together, in the ratio of 2 parts peels, 1 part jaggery, and 10 parts water and leave it for three months. Yes, in the first month, we will have to occasionally open the reused plastic jars to ensure the air inside is let out but beyond that there is nothing much to do beyond letting the fermentation process happen in a dark and room-temperature place.

Since we understand, not everyone can do this, here are some brands that make bioenzyme. Just check if they use organic waste or get fresh product, because we aim to reduce food waste here which means using organic waste.

Brands that sell bioenzyme

Forest Lab

One of the most popular bioezymes brands in India, using soapnuts or reetha and pineapple to make bioenzyme- based cleaners, is Forest Lab. Known for their bold discission to use start with reused plastic bottles, now they are using paper packing that looks like tetra packs, for which the sustainable jury is undecisive. We have reached out to learn more about this and their fair-trade policies. Climate advocates say their product is affordable, and efficient, even if it has to be mixed with water first despite being a liquid solution, from what we understand.

Miracle Enzyme

An IFRA certified plant-based brand, Miracle Enzyme not only delivers bioenzyme but also teaches people how to make their own. We have reached out and enquired about the packing used for their organic product and whether they are fair-trade.

JaeviIndia

Just like Miracle enzyme, this is a woman-owned brand, that sells bioenzyme and cold pressed oils, in India. We have reached out regarding their packaging and fair-trade policies.

While bioenzyme is becoming highly popular as a circular and eco-friendly cleaning solution, there are several questions laymen have about them, such as my partner’s enquiry of whether the nitrogen content in the soil the produce is grown impacts the bioenzyme, or my question of how do the pesticides used to grow the produce impact health when used in bioenzyme. Most brands negate the second since they use organic fruits and vegetables, but we are on the hunt for answers for your DIY enzymes. Until then, happy cleaning with eco-friendly cleaning solutions for Indian homes, and remember to spread the world to build trust in these brands if you feel up to that and find the products effective and worth the cash. Remember, it is not the one sustainable swap- especially since swaps might even be greenwashing many times- or one action- despite that being a valuable and important choice- that makes community action or reduces your impact, but impactful sustainable healthy habits that allow for mistakes, necessary realistic adjustments, your budget and value constraints, and your needs and resources. And I am hoping to help you build that, as well, take stock of waste and what brands you need to replace with my Low-Waste Planner from the team at Muses_Saga, where you can find my published works without paywalls. Let me know your favourite sustainable cleaning habit or product, before you leave?

Author’s Note: Thank you for reading and hope this helped.