Earthworm Cleaning Products Series Odor Eliminator and Upholstery Cleaner

Good morning folks and thanks for joining us for the final installment of the Earthworm cleaning products series. Clean Earth Brands sent me two full boxes of their fine products to review and Leaf Rate. I have used all of the products sent to me to date and today I would like to discuss both the Odor Eliminator and Carpet and Upholstery Cleaners.

Before I go on I would like to remind everyone that this is the final installment of a long running series on Earthworm products and that out of the gate there were some fabulous benefits as well as an overall impressive factor to the products that did seem to work but sadly as I have used more of these items I have become less enthusiastic and more concerned for their effectiveness and truthfulness in marketing.

I shook up and sprayed the Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner on a small spot on Matt’s chair (that you can see just in front of the bottle in the picture above) and the Odor eliminator across our kitchen where we had cooked with onions the night before & they were still lingering. As instructed I let the Upholstery Cleaner sit for about seven minutes. I grabbed the suggested rag and began blotting. Nothing happened so I figured perhaps I didn’t leave it on long enough and re-sprayed, this time leaving it on for twelve minutes. This is the result of two applications:

As you can see there was literally no change at all to the spot. I tried it on a black spot on my carpet with similar results. Sadly the Odor Eliminator also gets my thumbs down as my kitchen still smelled like onions.

As I mentioned yesterday -- What most concerns me, is that every single product I have tested so far is comprised of the exact same ingredients, which leads me to wonder if it is the same product repackaged with a new name and sold as something different -- how could a mildew remover take a spot of dirt off my upholstery or smells out of the air?

Sorry Earthworm, although I truly send ♥love♥ out for your effort to make the planet a better place through lack of chemical composition, I smell Greenwashing here and I can not grant more than a Two Leaf Rating for these products, collectively.

It saddens me to end this series on a downer note but I truly believe that the consumer should be aware of what it is they are buying when they spend money on an alleged Earth friendly item.

Whatchu Talkin’ ‘Bout Part II - Bio-plastic And Other New Eco Terms

Over the past couple reviews I have used the word ‘bio-plastic’ and it suddenly hit me that it has been quite a long while since I put out the first Green Terms post. In an effort to keep everyone up on the latest and greatest terminology, so you can shop and explore like the savvy Greenies I know you all are, here is part II in no particular order.

Bio-plastic: Where most common plastic (such as polyester or water bottles) is created from fossil fuel, known as petroleum, and turned into PET (polyethylene terephthalate), bio-plastic is different. Commonly created from plant based resources (such as corn starch) bio-plastic is as durable as its PET counterpart however it is less harmful to the environment as it can be composted in commercial facilities and will break down there in about 90 days. It produces far less emission to create as well as in its breakdown so the overall lifecycle impact is far less than petroleum.

Lifecycle: Sometimes referred to as ‘cradle to grave’ a life cycle assessment measures environmental impact of an item or service for its entire life (upcycling, recycling and reusing all help extend the lifecycle of an item ensuring less new is created).

Greenwashing: Greening up our lives has moved into the forefront of most people’s minds as more and more people are becoming aware of the very real impact we as humans are having on the planet and its resources. Many companies and organizations have decided to use this as a way to cleverly market their products regardless of the actual environmental impact. When a company touts their products as Green (or eludes to an illusion of such), yet the overall environmental impact is negative, Greenwashing has occurred. Diligence in research and review will make us savvy consumers in the realm of Green products and services!

Organic: Commonly confused with the word natural, organic methods and practices can be applied to all manner of items from food to clothing. Organic food is free of all chemical based products (pesticides, growth hormones, additives, etc). Organic clothing is created from natural fibers grown using organic methods (cotton, bamboo, hemp, soy, wool). Additional items such as baby supplies (lotions, toys) and cosmetics are offered in organic versions as well.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): From Wikipedia - “is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes the community's farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. CSA’s focus is usually on a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit in a vegetable box scheme, sometimes dairy products and meat”. Plans in my area can run from $300 - $1200 depending on the items acquired and length of membership (many are seasonal) and the items are chosen by the farm for current availability in the crop.

Socially Conscious: A basic awareness and open eye to the conditions of the entire human race. Many people will define it differently but I believe it is both a global as well as local consciousness to provide as much as possible to all people. This can be achieved through monetary means, volunteering, product, service or trade.

Bio-diesel: Fuel for a vehicle (or other motorized machine), as well as home heating units, as sourced from resources other than petroleum but typically vegetable based (such as corn based ethanol).

Carbon offset: A literal counterbalance to the greenhouse gasses (CO2) emitted by any individual. Each carbon offset “credit” is allegedly equivalent to one metric ton of CO2 being removed from the atmosphere. For example, planting a tree or investing in a wind farm are considered an offset. The term and practice is controversial as some feel it encourages a lack of awareness to current practice as the bad behaviors can simply be “bought off”.

Part I of Whatchu Talkin’ ‘Bout includes these eco terms:

environment
green
recycle
upcycle
eco
repurpose
earth day
solar
passive solar
photovoltaic panels
wind turbine
compost
emission
sustainable
renewable resource
global warming
climate change
carbon footprint

What are some of the terms you would like to see defined? Let me know in the comments section!

An Eco Friendly Pillow from EcoTex (?)

My title for this blog was created prior to my researching for this article and now I am slightly mystified so let me share the current situation and hopefully someone can shed some light.

Yesterday Matt and I went to one of the big box stores to pick up a few items for our new home as we desired to spend a little less money but acquire everything we needed in one location. (This is our tradeoff, less gas driving around to many stores but not shopping at local places). One of the items on our list -- pillows. Ours are so old I barely remember purchasing them and so it was time to change.

Perusing the aisles and squishing a whole bunch wrapped in plastic can be a mind boggling experience as there are so many to choose from. I saw standard, queen & king sized, medium or firm squishiness and prices all over the map depending if the item in question was a brand name, memory foam, hybrid (foam / poly fill), feather fill or store brand. We settled on a couple standard sized, standard squish ones in a low to mid price range. The felt like the right choice for us and we pushed the cart on.

Rounding the corner of the next aisle however opened up another row of pillows. My eyes immediately went right to this pillow


Reading the package I learned this pillow is filled with fiber made from recycled water bottles, the plastic packaging will begin to biodegrade in about three months and that the cotton cover is bleached using 100% hydrogen peroxide. Best of all the price was exactly the same as the others we had selected so we put the originals back and purchased the EcoTex pillow instead, feeling great bout our choice.

Until today.

I always like to link back to the company website (especially when doing a Leaf Rating Review) so since there was none listed on the package, I Googled EcoTex. The top selection was this website:
http://www.ecotex.com/
Upon reading through it definitely is not the correct location so I went back to Google and began searching for anything to get the right website. When nothing produced the desired results, I grabbed the pillow and read through the tag hoping for something.

The parent company that makes the pillow I have is named Springs Global so I looked them up. Not only could I not find an actual website for these folks but I must have visited over twenty websites and found nothing related to a pillow named EcoTex other than this Natures Sleep pillow which is not only completely different looking but is not even close to the same description.

As a total last resort I went to the big box store’s website and searched for this product in every possible manner but to no avail. Is this package from the alleged company EcoTex is nothing more than a clever way to get people to purchase the product or does the company really exist and creates recycled water bottle fill and biodegradable bags? I suddenly became very aware of the fact that it is quite possible I was duped by some form of greenwashing. This does not please me as I am a careful consumer who enjoys reporting back on as much great stuff as possible for all of you readers who enjoy learning. In this case the learning was in the doing.

I would love nothing more than to be completely incorrect and have to print a retraction to my allegations of greenwashing by a company that does not exist so please if you belong to this company, recognize the photo of my pillow package or simply know the website I could not locate in all my searching please let me know immediately!

Unfortunately I will be unable to grant the Leaf Rating I wanted to grant as I am unsure as to the validity of the claims made by this product.

Today’s motto? Essentially, live and learn:

Study, learn and purchase armed with as much knowledge as possible but be aware that sometimes even then the final result might still be undesirable.