It’s not hard to see why people want to take precautions and use disinfectants to help ward off some of the nasty germs and viruses that are making their way around the world. Parents, educators, businesses, and doctors are using more and more disinfectants to protect their kids, employees, students, and patients from these harmful, sometimes deadly, viruses.

Earth friendly disinfectants should be used in place of these harmful stores bought disinfectants because of the actual health risks that come with them. The chemicals found in most brands of disinfectants that you can find on the shelves of your local department store can have an adverse affect in battling germs.

Germs are nasty little bugs that have a way of becoming immune to the battery of chemicals that we can throw at them. In fact, recent studies have proven that there are some viruses, like staph, that are completely immune to any type of antibiotic and/or disinfectant.

Of course, our culture today has been groomed for taking the easiest way out. Earth friendly disinfectants, while much more economical and healthier, does take a little work on our part. It’s not as easy as grabbing a bottle of the shelf and giving things a spray and wipe down.

Earth Friendly Disinfectant Alternatives

One of the major concerns with commercial type disinfectants is the impact they have on the environment, especially to aquatic life. Some of the chemicals used, like the harmful triclosan, cannot be filtered through waste disposal treatment plants and bring toxic like bodies to rivers, streams, and lakes.

It is important for people to see that an earth friendly disinfectant is not only something that can help us fight off viruses and germs, but also helps the aquatic life by not contaminating the waters.

Making your own earth friendly disinfectants isn’t a particularly tough project. It can be done pretty quickly, and easily, with the right ingredients.

Make Your Own Earth Friendly Disinfectants

Vinegar is the end all when it comes to disinfectants when mixed with a little hydrogen peroxide, and placed in a spray bottle (just make sure to only mix what you need as sunlight will break down this combination fairly quickly) and you are ready to go. This combination is much more effective at destroying traces of salmonella and e coli bacteria.

Another great combination for toxic free detergents, or spray disinfectant, using vinegar is to mix it with baking soda. When doing a load of dishes in the dishwasher, this type of combination works great at cleaning dishes with no streaks.

Earth Friendly Disinfectant With Eucalyptus Oil

Eucalyptus oil is a great non-toxic, natural oil that is widely used for sterilizing and keep doctor’s offices clean. It should be used with great care though as it can cause burns in its non diluted form.

You simply combine 1.6 ounces of eucalyptus oil with a full liter of water. Just shake real well and use in a spray bottle to wash down counters and other surfaces where germs like to do their thing.

What if you don’t have any eucalyptus oil? Grapefruits work just as good.

If you take a gallon of water, mix in about 20 drops of grapefruit seed extract and add to a plastic spray bottle, you have a very potent combination which will do just as well as the commercial disinfectants

Earth friendly disinfectants are a cheaper, healthier alternative to buying the chemicals which line the shelves. Use some of these recipes or continue to search for natural alternatives to chemical disinfectants.

Photo by: dendron -
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