By: Miranda Nemitz, junior year nursing student at USM
Some of us hate it. Some of us love it. But regardless of our personal experience with it, cleaning is something that most of us are familiar with by the time we get to a college campus.
We use cleaning products to disinfect our surroundings by killing bacteria that over time can make us sick. While the health of our surroundings and living spaces is important to overall human health, many common cleaning products such as Windex, Pine Sol and Clorox wipes are unnecessarily harsh and contain toxic ingredients which can irritate lungs, burn eyes, make skin itchy, and cause headaches. Chemical ingredients that are harmful to humans are understandably harmful for the environment as well when they are flushed or rinsed into our public sewer systems or end up in our garbage.
The USM Office of Sustainability carries out a program called “Mindful Moveout” (https://usm.maine.edu/sustainability/residence-hall-move-out) every spring when residential students move out of the dorms. Last year in particular, they noticed a lot of half-used cleaning supplies in the trash. When I became a USM Eco-rep last fall and started working with the Office of Sustainability, I began thinking about how I could make a difference on USM’s campuses in regards to student health. The result of this partnership is an exciting pilot project that will launch this spring.
So what was the idea? You guessed it: eco-friendly cleaning products! Instead of buying pre-made ones, we will make our own using simple, non-toxic ingredients like baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, water and essential oils. Doing this will not only be more cost effective, but will also guarantee that all the ingredients are safe.
Working with the support of USM Residential Life and Facilities, we will make, store, monitor, and restock a few dorms on the Gorham campus with an all-purpose cleaner. Students will have access to this cleaner at their convenience, which they will be able to “check out” from common spaces to clean their individual living spaces. Each bottle will be labeled with ingredients, how-to instructions and suggested uses. If all goes well this semester, there is potential to expand this project to all of the dorms next semester. If this is the case, we will be sure to advertise this project to incoming freshman so they’ll know they don’t need to bring their own cleaning supplies to the dorms. This is a wonderful way for USM students to save money on cleaning products, to keep their living spaces clean without having to worry about harmful toxins, and to help work towards a safer environment by keeping cleaning products out of the waste stream.
Although this project is intended for residential USM students, the USM Eco-reps are also looking to do at least one green-clean DIY event this spring open to all students, where students will be able to learn recipes to make their own cleaners to use in their homes and apartments throughout southern Maine.
Because this is a brand new idea and project, we will observe how it goes. We recognize that there will likely be changes that happen before we get it just right! I am open to ideas or opinions from anyone who like to help to make this project a success. We are looking for help coming up with a brand name and design for our bottles. If you are interested in this aspect, or for more information, please email me, at [email protected], or the project’s staff advisor, Emily Eschner, at [email protected]. Thank you all for your support!