Our home is a green home. I don’t buy many throw away type products, and I try to buy household cleaners and personal care items that are good for both my body and for the environment. When I saw a bottle of Palmolive ECO Dishwashing Detergent at my Fred Meyer grocery store, it caught my eye. It is mostly plain, with pictures of fruit on the front label. Under the large words ECO it reads “phosphate free”, claiming it is better for lakes and streams.
It came in two scents, Lemon and Citrus Apple Splash. I have tried my share of lemon scented dishwasher detergents, and find it nothing special. But the Citrus Apple Splash, wow, that sounded very interesting and appealing! How could I resist? Especially at this low price. This 75 ounce bottle normally retails for $4.99, but was on sale for $3.50, AND there was a 30 cents off coupon hang tag on the neck of the bottle. $3.20 for a large 75 ounce bottle seemed like quite a deal. I bit.
After I got the detergent home and used it a few times, I can’t tell you how incredibly disappointed I was in the scent. There was no apple scent, no citrus, no “splash”. I smelled one thing and only one thing. Chlorine bleach. How sad is that? And when I washed my dishes in this, guess what odor came pouring out of my dishwasher vents? You guessed it, chlorine bleach. Yuck.
To top it all off, I am not even supposed to be using bleach in our home! We invested $12,000 a few years ago for a new septic system, and the engineer told me do not use bleach. Bleach kills bacteria, that’s why it’s so popular. But it kills the bacteria that my septic system needs to work! I did check the back of the container before I purchased it, and didn’t see a list of ingredients anywhere.
So that wasn’t up to my expectations, how well does it work you ask? Well, actually it does work quite well. The flip top cap lets me easily squeeze out the medium consistency liquid, and my dishes come out nice and clean, with no water marks. Because of the bleachy odor, I still prefer my Cascade dishwashing detergent over the Palmolive ECO.
I applaud the Colgate-Palmolive company for making a phosphate free product. Thousands of pounds of phosphorus enter our water ways each year, causing algae blooms and robbing the waters of oxygen vital to aquatic life. It is bad for the environment, so choosing a phosphate free detergent is a smart choice, I just wish this didn’t contain chlorine. It’s clearly in there because I can smell it! If I read the small print very carefully, it says that this does contain chlorine bleach, and to be careful not to splash it in eyes, or get it on the body. There are other safety precautions to follow as well.
Personally, I don’t consider any product that contains bleach to be earth friendly, so I am very disappointed in this product from that aspect. If you are interested in learning more about the negative affects of bleach and it’s by products, check out the University of West Virginia’s site and read their article. It’s an eye opener:
To conclude, this does work well. Some states have actually banned use of phosphates, and others are considering following suit. If you are looking for a good phosphate free dishwasher detergent, this is a good choice. I just wish it didn’t contain bleach.
