Staff Review - Sun and Earth Xtra Concentrated Dish Liquid

"I do the dishes A LOT.  We live on a sailboat and so, sadly, there's no space for a dishwasher in our small utilitarian kitchen. When we moved onto the boat last year in May I made a promise to myself that I'd never use any kind of cleaning product that would pollute the marina waters I live on, or cause problems for the turtles, herons, fishes and ducks that frequent the marina waters.  After all, my dirty dish water drains directly out the bottom of the boat!  

It's scary to think that the phosphates, petroleum-based ingredients and chlorine often found in conventional cleaning products can cause overgrowth of algae in our waters, suffocating fish populations and creating an unbalanced environment for local species, not to mention being generally toxic to fish and other species. Though many cleaning products are designed to biodegrade, we can't prevent the large quantities of these chemicals from eventually traveling into our waterways.  For example, a May 2002 study of contaminants in stream water samples across the country, the U.S. Geological Survey found persistent detergent metabolites in 69% of streams tested. Sixty-six percent contained disinfectants. 

The thing that sets 'natural' classes of dish and laundry detergents apart is that they're specifically designed to be non-toxic, both to us and to the animals that may eventually encounter our dirty dish water somewhere down the line.  Ingredients exclude bleach, phosphates and petroleum products, instead creating cleaning agents from plant, fruit and vegetable oils among others to produce the same cleaning results.

Sun and Earth dishwashing liquid includes natural surfactants (made from coconut and vegetable oil), orange oil, aloe, preservative and water.  That's it.  I get my dishes clean, my kitchen smells like oranges afterwards and the marina critters don't have to suffer the consequences!  Additionally, I can feel really good about the fact that I'm supporting a local company instead of a huge multi-million dollar product conglomerate somewhere far away, plus Sun and Earth does not conduct any testing on animals, which is a major plus in my book."

-Kirsten Harper, Marketing Coordinator for Kimberton Whole Foods