The (new) vegan household - part two

When I originally tried to follow a vegetarian lifestyle, way back, over fifteen years ago, the go-to label for ethical household cleaning products was Ecover. I stocked it in the organic shop that I ran at one time (way before its time) and my mother detested it. I remember that it was the only brand in use at the Vegetarian Cookery school. I’ve seen Ecover products for sale in the Biocoop here, so I wondered where Ecover products stood nowadays, in the whole vegan, cruelty-free matrix?

Ecover was founded in 1979 in Belgium, where the company developed a phosphate-free washing powder, and the rest is history. All the products are planted-based, biodegradable and Ecover has NEVER tested on animals. I checked out the English-language website, there was everything that we use: laundry liquid, sensitive-skin, pump-action hand soap, various sprays, bathroom cleaner, kitchen cleaner, limescale remover, even wipes. Everything that we’d need was available, either from the Biocoop or via Amazon, at a cost. Lovely minimalist packaging though.

Currently, when we are not on a Bien Vu (basics range) economy drive due to the plummeting exchange rate, we usually buy supermarket own brand, or occasionally some brands such as Petite Marseilles, L’Arbre Vert or even Cillit Bang creep into the trolley. Many of the products we use come from Super U’s Eco Nature range, which bear the EU ecolabel. This is a voluntary registration, approval and labelling scheme established in 1992. France is one of the major participants in the scheme, however, the emphasis is on the environmental aspect. The products awarded the label range from tables and chairs to dishwashing tablets. There is no specific mention of animal testing on the main pages, but buried in the FAQ I found the note that although the European Commission is committed to limiting animal testing, currently there is no criteria in the ecolabel concerning animal testing.

The other supermarket alternative is the French brand L’Arbre Verte which seems to have an emphasis on allergens. Cost-wise they’re usually around 20% more expensive than own brand and can be tricky to track down locally. I bought a bottle of multi-surface spray from somewhere. It was great, but we’ve been trying to track it down ever since. One of the quirks of shopping here, sometimes you buy a product, like it, and then never see it again. After negotiating the usual abysmal French website, eventually I found on the ‘nos engagements’ page the words I was seeking: “L’arbre vert ne pratique pas de test sur animaux”. OK, then, if I could find it.

Converting to cruelty-free vegan household products is not going to be achieved overnight. First, we need to use up the products currently in use, so it will be a gradual process – time for plenty of research. The list of prodcuts that we use is long, in the house alone: dish-washing liquid, kitchen surface spray, daily toilet cleaner, toilet limescale remover, bathroom/shower spray (anti-limescale), clothes washing liquid, clothes washing tablets, washing machine water softener tablets, oxygenating wash boost, fabric conditioner, anti-allergen fabric spray, multi-surface wipes, and good old-fashioned bleach. That’s thirteen different bottles, some of which are duplicated upstairs and down; we should qualify for an episode of ‘How Clean is Your House?’

Over the years, we’ve used the whole gamut of cleaners, from Cillit Bang to pure bleach, steam cleaners to Stardrops. After the financial crisis of 2007, making your own household cleaners came into vogue, as did knitting, growing your own food, and the Great British Bake Off. I’m not really in charge of the cleaning, that’s OH’s department, and he has a whole range of favourite products – antibacterial wipes, anti-calcaire gels and a special anti-allergen spray for the sofas. That’s a whole load of anti. I have, however, been able to convert him to making his own weedkiller, as I reported last week.  Can I tempt him to try making our own cleaning sprays?

According to my trusty Swedish eco-manual the key ingredients are bicarb, lemon juice, salt and vinegar. All ingredients we have to hand. It so happened that the shower spray was coming to an end, so this was our first attempt at a home-made cleaner. I checked out a few different recipes on the internet, and printed out some pretty labels and an inspirational Guardian article for OH. Our first recipe was fairly simple, although we didn’t have the recommended castile soap (at this point I’d never even heard of it), so I took the opportunity to use up some of the horrible Bien Vu liquid soap that sucks all the moisture out of my skin. Just two cups of water, a tablespoon of bicarb, a tablespoon of liquid soap and twenty drops of tea tree oil. It was about time the tea tree oil found a use – it has a use-by date of 2002 so well past its prime.

Initial impressions are good and once I’d removed the original wrapping and fixed a pretty label it looked nearly as nice as those lovely plain Ecover bottles I’d been tempted by in the Biocoop. Just waiting for feedback from the chief housekeeper.