Mountain Green

Unlike food companies, cleaning products manufacturers aren’t required to disclose what’s in their products. We can’t understand why – after all, our skin is a pretty porous membrane, letting all kinds of things in day and night, without even telling us. (At least we know when we put stuff in our mouths – and most of the time we know when our kids do.) Detergents and fabric softeners leave residues on clothes – and diapers, and bed sheets. And those residues can transfer to our skin. (If you have sensitive skin, you’re well aware of this.) This is problematic for skin, our largest organ. But it can also be problematic for the rest of our body when our skin absorbs some of this stuff.

Since we know that what goes on your clothes goes on your skin, and what goes on your skin gets absorbed into your body, we use only vegetable-based ingredients, no harsh chemicals and no rash-producing enzymes.

Clean and Green: How We Achieve Both

MG has a reputation for creating detergents and softeners that are earth-friendly, people-friendly, skin-friendly, clothes-friendly AND that get your clothes sparkling clean.

You know, we wish the names of all our ingredients were something like “pure essence of angel ambrosia”. But the fact is, many have names that sound like monsters from old Sci-Fi movies, like: HYDROXYETHYL. Or perhaps avenging Superheroes: ALPHASULFO. These are actually veggie-based ingredients that make Mountain Green cleaners so effective at cleaning, as well as hypoallergenic, biodegradable, and even vegan!

The trick is to say HYDROXYETHYL like it’s a good thing. Because it is; it’s just long and alien-looking. In fact, it’s part of a compound based on canola oil that keeps your clothes non-toxically soft without using any animal products. And, like all of our ingredients, it is listed at: Cleangredients.org. Cleangredients is an AWESOME organization, a unique partnership between non-profit environmental organization GreenBlue, the EPA, and the green chemical industry. Here, in their own words, is Cleangredients:

CleanGredients is an online database of institutional and industrial (I&I) cleaning ingredients — the online resource for green formulation®. CleanGredients aligns broad environmental and human health goals with the cleaning product industry’s business objectives and will support formulation of products with human and environmental health benefits, whether to meet corporate internal objectives, regulations, voluntary product recognition programs, or national and international eco-labels. CleanGredients is designed to:
1. help formulators identify ingredients that have potential environmental and human health and safety benefits, and
2. provide opportunity for manufacturers and producers of cleaning ingredients to showcase their ingredients with potential environmental and human health and safety benefits.

So here’s how we’re going about getting you the information you need in a manner that the non-chemists among you can understand. First, we’ll tell you what’s in our detergents, softeners and dryer sheets in broad terms. Then we’ll explain what the long names that make chemists’ eyes light up mean in regular English.

Want more technical? We’re happy to provide you with  Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on any of our products. Just drop us an email.

Some Terms You’ll Need to Know:

Cationic: refers to a positively charged ion. Cationic softeners bind by electrostatic attraction to the negatively charged groups on the surface of the clothing fibers, thus reducing static cling and giving a soft feel to the fabric..

Surfactant: The term ’surfactant’ comes from “surface acting agent”. Surfactants lower the surface tension of water, essentially making it ‘wetter’ so that it is less likely to stick to itself and more likely to interact with oil and grease. Surfactants can have natural or synthetic origins. Surfactants from natural origins (vegetable or animal) are derived from sources such as palm oil or tallow. Surfactants from synthetic origin are derived from petroleum. Mountain Green uses only natural, vegetable surfactants.

Detergency: The ability of a detergent to lift soil (dirt and grease) from a surface by displacing it with chemicals (surfactants) which adhere more readily to the surface being cleaned than to the soil.

Ingredients that are in all products:

Purified Water goes through Reverse osmosis, a water softener and ultraviolet light sterilization.

Salt is used as a thickener.

Sodium Propionate is a mild, food grade preservative that is used in concentrations of .035%. (necessary because our formulas are all plant-based.)

Sodium Bicarbonate: also known as baking soda, we add this to all detergents as an aid to soil release.

Dishwashing Liquid

• Baby Bottle & Dishwashing Liquid: Purified water, vegetable based surfactants* (corn, coconut and/or palm), citric acid, a mild food-grade preservative (less than .05%).
• Orange Burst: Purified water, vegetable based surfactants* (corn, coconut and/or palm), orange rind oil.

* The surfactant is an aqueous solution of alkyl polyglycosides** based on natural fatty alcohols, approved for use in products eco-labeled “Good Environmental Choice” (in Swedish: Bra Miljöval) by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

**Alkyl polyglycosides are a recent category of mild carbohydrate-derived surfactants. The glycosides are an efficient nonionic emulsifier and the fatty alcohol is a well known consistency provider and co-emulsifier. With respect to international standard test methods (OECD), the compound is readily biodegradable and it shows a very good skin compatibility in a dermatological investigation.

Sodium Alphasulfo Methyl C12-18 Ester and Disodium Alphasulfo C12-18 Fatty Acid Salt (used in dish and detergent products). This versatile foaming agent is a naturally derived and readily biodegradable detergency.

Detergents:

• Free & Clear Laundry Detergent (regular and baby): Purified water, natural and biodegradable vegetable based surfactants (coconut and/ or palm).
• Original Citrus Laundry Detergent: Purified water, natural and biodegradable vegetable based surfactants (coconut and/ or palm), orange rind oil.
• Baby Detergent: Purified water, natural and biodegradable vegetable based surfactants (coconut and/ or palm), essential oil blend (incl. chamomile and lavender).

Fatty Alcohol Ethoxylate: a nonionic surfactant that provides moderate, stable foam and high detergency in detergents, dishwash and hand soaps. It is water soluble and highly effective at low concentrations, and is an environmentally friendly surfactant that contains no phenolic compounds. These attributes along with its functional profile, make Fatty Alcohol Ethoxylate a viable alternative for replacing nonyl phenol ethoxylates (petroleum-based surfactants).

Soybean Oil, Methyl Ester -  naturally derived from soy oil – a petrochemical substitute with excellent degreasing characteristics.

Sodium lauroyl sarcosinate: derived from coconut oil; a safe, skin-friendly cleanser for both skin and hair that effectively removes surface oil, dirt and bacteria, without stripping or drying sensitive skin.

Fabric Softeners:

Lavender Fabric Softener: Purified water, natural and biodegradable vegetable based cationic fabric softening agent*, natural lavandin oil.

Free & Clear Fabric Softener: Purified water, natural and biodegradable vegetable based cationic fabric softening agent*.

Baby: Purified water, natural and biodegradable vegetable based cationic fabric softening agent*, essential oil blend

* Methyl Bis (Canola Amidoethyl) -2-Hydroxyethyl Ammonium Methyl Sulfate . A canola-based, biodegradable fabric softener.

Dryer Sheets:

Natural Lavender: Purified water, natural and biodegradable vegetable based cationic fabric softening agent, natural lavandin oil.

Free & Clear: Purified water, natural and biodegradable vegetable based cationic fabric softening agent*.

Baby Free & Clear: Purified water, natural and biodegradable vegetable based cationic fabric softening agent*.

*Methyl Bis(Canola Amidoethyl) -2-Hydroxyethyl Ammonium Methyl Sulfate. A canola-based, biodegradable fabric softener.

Hand Soap

Foamy Hand Soap: Purified water, plant surfactants, glycerin, lavender essential oil.