City Hippy

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Saturday, August 06, 2005

NEWS: I can see clearly now

We planned to have the windows washed today so we did some research during the week and found ourselves a window cleaner.

I then had a 'cityhippy' moment where I realised that the window cleaner would probably use chemical soap...and waste a lot of water. Bad and double bad!

I figured that if I could get them to use a greener soap then perhaps I could figure out a way to recycle the water instead of having to chuck it down the drain because of chemical soap pollution.

Lightbulb moment! If I could get them to use Ecover Washing Up Liquid instead I could then recycle the waste water after the windows were clean by using it to water the garden. Good and double good!

First I needed to make sure that the Ecover would not kill our garden. I thought it would be cool but wanted to check so I got in touch with them to find out and they replied:

The waste water is not harmful for your garden, however we recommend that if possible you leave the water to settle for 2 -3 days before use, as by this time the biodegradation process will already have started to take place.


Turns out the window cleaners just use pure water and no soap and no buckets...just very long brushes. So no nasty soap to worry about after all and all the water drained into our garden naturally. A perfect result! Hooray!

Still it is nice to know that Ecover cleans at apparently no expense to the environment and appears to be so eco-friendly that Ecover themselves are convinced that you could safely use their products waste water to water your garden without killing your plants. How cool is that!

If anyone gives it a go then let us know the result. Does it save or slaughter your shrubbery?

Well done Ecover! Now that's what I call green!

Namaste

CH

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4 Comments:

At 11:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you wash your own windows, you can use water with washing-up liquid and a sponge (maybe adding water to a nearly-empty bottle), and polish the windows with old newspapers. Minimal water is used like this. I can't see professionals going for it though.

 
At 7:59 PM, Blogger City Hippy said...

Hi Laurel

Thanks for the comment.

Yeah you are of course right...using a bucket saves water...and one does not even need any soap just elbow grease and water.

But whats the deal with newspapers though? How on earth does that polish windows? Have heard that before but runs against all logic.

Only problem with doing it ourselves is that we do not have long brushes and do not climb ladders so how do we do our conservatory roof and second story windows?

The window cleaner we used had special brushes connected to a hose so it pumped the water through the brush. Very handy for out of reach windows.

Namaste

CH

 
At 1:35 PM, Blogger Melissa said...

Diluted vinegar also works well.

 
At 1:49 PM, Blogger City Hippy said...

Hi Liss

Vinegar seems to be a theme in cleaning...it seems like vinegar or citric acid can clean most things.

Will give it a try.

Namaste

CH

 

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