Green Cleaners - Overview

These days many boaters are looking to green their boat cleaning routine by searching for environmentally friendly cleaning products—and manufacturers are responding. A quick scan of cleaners on a boating store shelf reveals a wide range of products with various green terms including: Biodegradable, Non Toxic, Phosphate-Free, Recycled, EPA Design for Environment, Eco-Friendly Formula, Environmentally Safe, Environmentally Friendly, and perhaps our favorite, Environmentally Smart. What do these terms mean? Can you believe the claims? And most importantly, if a product is truly “green” will it still clean your boat? In Foundation Findings #47 the BoatU.S. Foundation set out to answer these questions.

We put 20 boat soaps to the test. With so many products on the market, we stuck to general boat soaps and all-purpose cleaners to keep things simple. Many of the soaps tested make green claims on their labels. We also, as a control, included a few tried-and-true cleaning staples that do not make any environmental claims. We sent one set of cleaners off to a university laboratory for toxicological analysis and we kept a second set for our hands-on cleaning effectiveness tests.

Above and Below: Some of the labels you'll see on the products lining shelves at your local marine supply store.