Green cleaning products are intended to provide environmentally safer alternatives to traditional cleaning products by offering a formulation that more compatible with the environment through biodegradability and/or renewable ingredients. As such, products in this category contain a more limited scope of ingredients compared to their conventional counterparts and continue to rely on new and emerging technology to supplement their palette. In order to understand the gap in performance caused by the limited number of ingredients between green cleaning products and their conventional alternatives, products of each type were subject to standard product performance tests (Laundry Detergent, All Purpose Cleaner, Automatic Dishwasher Detergent and Hand Dish Detergent). Conventional products were selected from both National Brand and Private Label products to understand how the performance of the leading products as well as their economical equivalents would perform against sustainable and renewable products certified by the EPA Safer Choice and USDA Biopreferred programs. The results provide insight to understand the differences in product performance, which may be related to the scope of substances approved for use in their respective programs and/or the gap in technology between the conventional and green cleaning categories.
