Labels - Close Up

A quick scan of the labels on our tested cleaners reveals a wide range of green terms. Can you believe the claims? In a nutshell, no. Unfortunately for consumers, there is no regulation for the use of claims such as "non toxic" and "biodegradable" that are found on many labels. Our tests confirm this as we discovered a few "green" labeled products appeared to be among the most harmful products tested, and some conventional products were far less toxic than suspected, yet made no environmental claims on the packaging.

The least toxic product in our test 3M Boat Soap makes no environmental claims on its packaging, while the most toxic and one of the least biodegradable products in our test includes terms such as: Ecological, Minimum impact on aquatic life, fast and complete biodegradability, and phosphate free on their label. 

Many products include a variety of environmental terms on their packaging - these labels aim to make it easier to identify green products.