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Greening Your Purchase of
Cleaning Products
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA742-B-01-002
December 2001
www.epa.gov/oppt/epp
Pollution Prevention
and Toxics
(7409M)
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Guide
1EPA
What’s Inside:
– What Can You Do?
– Success Stories
– Contacts & Resources
– EPA’s Purchasing Tool
Suite
Cleaning products are necessary for killing germs and keeping the home and work-
place in sanitary condition. But, cleaning products present several human health
and environmental concerns. They may contain chemicals associated with eye,
skin, or respiratory irritation, and other human health issues. Additionally, the concen-
trated forms of many cleaning products are classified as hazardous waste, creating poten-
tial handling, storage, and disposal issues for users. Reducing these human health and
environmental effects is an important incentive for implementing an EPP cleaning prod-
ucts program.
Why Green Your Cleaning Products?
Produced by EPA's Environmentally
Preferable Purchasing (EPP)
Program, this is one in a series of
purchasing guides aimed at help-
ing procurement officials identify
and purchase "greener" products
and services. Check out all our
EPP tools and resources at
<www.epa.gov/oppt/epp>.
Environmental and Health
Concerns
• Millions of tons of cleaning products
are washed down drains every month.
These products often contain toxic
chemicals that can find their way into
drinking water supplies or streams and
lakes.
• The chemicals can be toxic to aquatic
plants and animals. Some of these
chemicals (e.g., phosphates) can cause
nutrient-loading in water bodies, lead-
ing to adverse effects on water quality,
flora, and fauna in the area.
• General-purpose cleaning products have
been shown to contribute approximate-
ly 8 percent of total nonvehicular
volatile organic compound (VOC) emis-
sions in California, which contribute to
smog formation, retard plant growth,
and can cause respiratory distres