Ecover: Green can Clean

Ecover sent me their new washing up liquid and challenged me to use it for five washes to see if green can clean. Ecover have rehauled their cleaning soap with a range of delicious new scents, 99.8% plant-based content, and a promise of washing 40% more dishes than the previous formula. The bottle is particularly smart, being made from a mix of recycled plastic and sugarcane derived material, and so is completely renewable, recyclable and reusable. On top of this, the Ecover ecological factories claim to be "energy efficient, sustainably built and clean running".

The company's Innovation Manager (how's that for a fancy job title?!), Tom Domen says that "Ecover has been on a journey to not only make products even less harmful to the environment, but to ensure that they match the performance of conventional cleaners".

To optimise the product's efficiency, Ecover recommends sprinkling baking soda on to burnt cookwear to dissolve grime, and pre-treating tea and coffee stains with lemon. Luckily I haven't had to deal with quite so many tough stains recently, but I found for normal washing, the Ecover washing up liquid has worked at least as well as any other brand, coping well with a continuing stream of bowls and dishes when I last had a cooking and baking session!

I should say that I had a slight mishap with the bottle in-transit, resulting in a spillage after the lid popped off. This was, admittedly, whilst cycling back from the post office on a bumpy road, so shouldn't be too much of a risk. But I thought I would mention it, so that you know to pop the washing up liquid in a different shopping bag to, say, some of your fresh vegetables and bread from the supermarket!

I am always one for an eco-friendly product to recommend alongside the other focuses of this blog, and I will be giving this one a thumbs up. Ecover washing up liquid is available online, and in Tescos, Sainsburys, Co-Op and Waitrose for a reasonable £1.60 for 500ml, or £2.40 for 1L.

If you found this post interesting, or have been using Ecover products, use the hashtag #greencanclean to get involved.

Disclaimer: I was sent an Ecover product pack for the purpose of review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.