Top green liquid dish soaps

A botanically- rather than petroleum-derived dish soap is gentler on hands, eyes and lungs, and aquatic life it eventually touches after going down the drain. I have vetted the ingredients in the recommended products on this list, and found them to be free of the "Lose It" ingredients one should most avoid in liquid soaps: APEs and NPEs, fragrance, sodium laureth sulfate and other ethoxylated ingredients, and the antibacterial chemical triclosan. Meaningful third-party certifications are noted; in a heartening trend, most of these products have received the Environmental Protection Agency's Design for the Environment (DfE) seal.

CLOROX GREENWORKS: DfE; in tests by the Organic Consumers Association, it had no detectable traces of 1, 4, dioxane, a suspected carcinogen that can be released as a byproduct in certain manufacturing processes.

DR. BRONNER'S CASTILE SOAPS certified fair trade, USDA certified organic plant ingredients, 100% post consumer recycled packaging. No detectable dioxane in OCA tests. http://www.drbronners.com

ECOS (EARTH FRIENDLY PRODUCTS) DfE http://www.ecos.com/ Although I don't like grapefruit really, I like their gentle grapefruit dish liquid.

GREEN DEPOT DfE http://www.greendepot.com/greendepot/product.asp?prod_name=Green+Depot+Liquid+Dish+Soap&pf_id=GDCPLDD32&dept_id=1000&s_id=0&

MARTHA STEWART CLEAN DISH & HAND SOAP DfE, leaping bunny
MIESSENCE MIENVIRON DISHWASHING CONCENTRATE (with certified organic plant ingredients, ranked a top 10 for health by GoodGuide

METHOD DfE http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=169354&catid=34547

SEVENTH GENERATION leaping bunny, and the greenest bottles after Dr. Bronner's, with up to 90% PCW for dish soap and aiming for 100%. http://www.seventhgeneration.com

More information on choose it/lose it ingredients for ever category of home product can be found in Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices, by GreenerPenny editor Mindy Pennybacker.

For a list of DfE certified products, go to http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/formulat/formpartc.htm#cdetergent

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