What about plastic spray bottles? In our quest to be a truly non-toxic, super sustainable, and beyond-green cleaning company we ask ourselves, What’s the next step? Plastic spray bottles. We use them every day. They are extremely cheap, convenient, and lightweight. We have a picture of one on our flyers, spraying out flowers.
What could be wrong with a plastic spray bottle? Well, first of all the very thing spray bottles are meant to do— atomize and project— may be slightly compromising of human health. We typically use only water and a small amount of vinegar or biocompatible detergent in our spray bottles. Still, City water that contains Chlorine or Chloramines, when inhaled can be hard on the lungs.
There is another global problem with plastic spray bottles. They aren’t durable. Eventually they crack and leak, but usually before that the little tube inside the sprayer clogs. Unfortunately, when we throw them out they become durable trash, taking hundreds of years to decompose into tiny fragments, either in landfills where they can leach hormone-disrupting chemicals into underground water, or, if they make it to the ocean they may become part of one of the famous plastic trash islands.
So what’s a sustainable company to do? We are purchasing steel, instead of plastic buckets, We are trying to use buckets instead of spray bottles more and more. And we are wondering how we can use glass spray bottles. instead…