Reducing toxins in the home and saving consumers money on green products is the impetus behind the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley’s latest workshop.
Next Thursday (May 5) at the Canmore Senior’s Centre at 7 p.m., the Biosphere Institute will host a hands-on make your own green cleaning products workshop for the public in an effort to reduce the number of toxins in Bow Valley households.
The workshop will help residents make their own laundry detergent, dish soap and all-purpose cleaner, which they can then take home.
“We’ve researched a lot of different recipes and picked the ones we like the best,” said Biosphere executive director Melanie Watt. “A lot of conventional cleaners have perfumes and toxins in them. This way, we can see what’s going into our products.”
Most of the green cleaning products use ingredients already found in the home, such as vinegar and baking soda. Making cleaning products at home can save people a lot of money and greatly reduce the number of toxins in the household. In Canada, cleaning products don’t have to list all of their ingredients, and often contain harsh chemicals.
The workshop will take about an hour, and all participants are asked to bring containers to transport their cleaning products back home. Each will be given enough product to take home. Watt also said some of the ingredients for green cleaning products that are hard to find may be purchased in bulk through the Biosphere.
“We want to make it as easy as possible,” Watt said.
The Biosphere has already hosted a similar event in Exshaw at the library and said the response has been positive.
The Biosphere Institute is also hosting a screening of the films Chemerical, the 2009 documentary about a family giving up the use of chemicals in everyday cleaning and hygiene products, and Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home, about a family asked to keep every scrap of garbage they produce for three months. The screening will take place on April 28 and is free to the public.
To register for the cleaning workshop, call the Biosphere Institute at 403-678-3445.
