APRIL 25, 2011 Last week Whole Foods Market introduced a new tiered rating system for household cleaning products. The color-coded Eco-Scale Rating System categorizes products as red, orange, yellow or green based on a specific set of environmental and sourcing standards.
The New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that around 84,000 chemicals used in consumer goods, including some home cleaners, have not been tested to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency safety standards. Whole Foods will have every one of its cleaning products independently audited to make sure that it meets Eco-Scale standards by Earth Day 2012. Red-rated products will be scrubbed from Whole Foods’ shelves, and the remaining will be color coded.
According to a Whole Foods Market online survey of nearly 2,500 U.S. adults, three out of four respondents think the government requires manufacturers of household cleaning products to list ingredients on the label. In fact, the fed doesn’t. Beginning in April 2012, however, all household cleaning products carried by Whole Foods must list every single ingredient on product packaging.
— Pamela Bond, newhope360.com
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