Environmentally Friendly Sponges

Environmentally Friendly Sponges

sponges

With an avid interest in natural and environmentally friendly products, it’s amazing to discover how many people you discover with the same penchant.  A local visit to a local gourmet grocery store, I struck up a conversation with Bob, the owner of www.biobob.ca.

Cleaning products have always been a concern to me.  Paper towel is immensely convenient and I can’t stand the idea of washing cloth towelettes because they never seem to come clean and when left wet, especially in summer, they become festering piles of smelly infectious waste which isn’t good to wash anything with.

On the flipside, some facts about paper towel:

  • To make one ton of paper towels, 17 trees are cut down and 20,000 gallons of water are consumed.
  • Every day, over 3,000 tons of paper towel waste is produced in the US alone.
  • Decomposing paper towels produce methane gas, a leading cause of global warming.
  • Paper was the largest contributor to municipal landfill waste in 2006.

(source: https://www.peopletowels.com/aboutpt/WageWarOnWaste)

I also like the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  It truly is magic and with a daughter nearing 3, I use the magic consistently.  They were rumoured to contain formaldehyde but that was dispelled (puportedly) by this Snopes article:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/eraser.asp

They do however, wear out quit quickly.  Bob showed me some products of his which have survived for decades.

The sponges are not made with cellulose (wood) fibres but instead a type of plastic.  This plastic is good for the environment in that it’s intended for multiple uses and replaces the consumption of wood.  Wood naturally rots and is a haven for bacteria.  As long as these sponges are kept dry (just wring them out), they are hygienic.

Bob is hard core with his conservation efforts and told me of a sanitary product for your backside which was re-useable.  I told him he might have trouble selling that in the North American market.

That aside, you can find his products at:

http://mysponge.com/ and in some retail locations.

 

One thought on “Environmentally Friendly Sponges

  1. Thanks so much for the mention Martin, it is true that I am hardcore in my environmental commitment 🙂 I love that our sponges never even have to see the 4th level of the waste pyramid, when you do eventually wear them out, you can simply tear them into pieces and use them in your potting soil where they will both aerorate the soil and retain moisture for the roots. I forgot to mention that our sponges (except for the dense ones you use with baking soda) improve exponentially with repeated use and abuse.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back To Top