Environment

These eco-friendly B.C. businesses are cleaning up the cleaning industry

These six natural home goods companies will keep your nest nice, neat—and all natural.

By Kristi Alexandra /

Want to make your home a little greener? These B.C.-based brands are proving that eco-friendly cleaning products don’t have to sacrifice performance—or pleasant scents. From refillable all-purpose sprays and plastic-free dish soap bars to laundry strips that cut down on packaging waste, these local companies are helping households reduce their environmental footprint one scrub at a time.

Wildflower Mercantile

Comox’s Wildflower Mercantile boutique is where you might go to get a bouquet of flowers or a last-minute gift for a loved one, but the company also makes a plant-based all-purpose cleaner ($16 per 473 ml refillable bottle) made with lemon, ylang ylang and spearmint that’ll have your home’s surfaces smelling like a romp through a tidy herb garden on a bluebird day.

AspenClean

Founded by a family in North Vancouver in 2004, AspenClean’s eco-certified line of home cleaning products—which includes laundry detergents, dish soaps and bathroom cleaners—is made with coco glucoside, aspen bark and baking soda, making for a natural clean throughout the home. The company also offers a cleaning service that uses its own products, if you’d rather leave the scrubbing to the pros.

 

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Tru Earth

This green, mess-free answer to laundry pods and liquid detergent was created by a dad who was appalled by the amount of plastic waste we use with our products each day. His solution: laundry “eco-strips” ($14.99 per 32 pack) that are free from parabens, phosphates, phthalates, dyes and chlorine bleach—and eliminate the need for single-use plastic packaging.

 

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Be Clean Naturally

Squamish-based Be Clean Naturally’s low-impact goods and refillable home products are also for those who’d rather buck single-use plastics. Its dish soap bars (starting at $12), for example, come sans-packaging and are made from saponified coconut and castor oil, plus scented with essential oils like lemon, fir and lemongrass or rosemary and spearmint.

Nellie’s

You may recognize Nellie’s home cleaning products by its 1950s-style pop art-esque design, but you’ll remember the North Vancouver brand for its innovative approach—for example, its waterless dish cubes ($10 for a 16-pack), which strip dish cleaners back to basics with the addition of essential oils.

Saltspring Soapworks

This organic soap company hails from—you guessed it—Salt Spring Island, but they’ve expanded their essential-oil infused goods beyond just soap. Their room sprays (like the Cypress Fir Room Spray, $24.95) keep the air smelling clean, too.

Kristi Alexandra

Kristi Alexandra

Kristi Alexandra is the managing editor, food and culture, at Canada Wide Media. She loves food, travel, film and wine (but most of all, writing about them for Vancouver Magazine, Western Living and BCBusiness). Send any food and culture-related pitches to her at [email protected].