Reducing Hazardous Chemical Use

Reduce or eliminate the amount of chemicals in your home and that you use on your body by following a few key steps. First, evaluate the products that you have in your home now and see if there are any that you can do without, or if there are ones that can serve multiple roles. Second, see if there are safer alternatives to those products. For cleaning products, see if there are Green Seal or EcoLogo labeled products and for personal care products, you can search for better alternatives through the Environmental Working Group. Learn more from our Choosing Greener Cleaning and Personal Care Products Lunchtime Learning webinar.

Professional garment cleaning services allow us to ensure that our clothes are cleaned and cared for properly. However, traditional garment cleaning methods use hazardous chemicals, such as perchloroethylene (commonly known as PERC). As health concerns over the use of PERC have risen, so have new environmentally friendly cleaning methods. Use this GreenNY Fact Sheet to learn how to choose safer garment cleaning.

Instead of immediately turning to a pesticide when you’re having issues with your plants, investigate other potential causes of distress, such as poor sunlight, nutrients, or other conditions. If you do need to eliminate pests from a plant, try natural remedies first, such as horticulture oil or insecticidal soaps. Learn more about reducing pesticides in the garden from our Reducing Pesticides Use Lunchtime Learning Webinar and from DEC’s Green Yard and Garden Tips page.

Household hazardous waste is any waste, produced in the home, which is flammable, toxic, corrosive, or reactive. Common examples include paints, automotive fluids, hobby chemicals, cleaning products, thinners and strippers, batteries, acids/basis, and nail polish remover. It’s best to reduce these wastes at the source, where possible, but if you are unable to do so, please ensure they are disposed of properly by looking into household hazardous waste collection events through your municipality or by visiting DEC’s Household Hazardous Waste page.

Typical deicing salt corrodes surfaces, pollutes groundwater, damages plants, and irritates pets' paws. Snow removal, such as shoveling, plowing, or snow-blowing should be the first course of action. If a product must be applied, please choose products Certified by the US EPA’s Safer Choice program and currently on the Safer Choice List.