Eco-friendly cleaning – great! But what does that actually mean?

We believe the only thing more important than a perfect cup of coffee, is a healthy earth to enjoy it on. That’s why we’ve taken the liberty and developed an eco-friendly liquid that helps take care of our customers’ descaling needs. However, eco labelling is pretty vague. So, what exactly is it about the eco descaler that makes it eco-friendly?

A lot of commercial descaler products contain a chemical known as phosphate – a molecule of nitrogen and phosphorous. Phosphates are found in our food, our soaps, and in our cleaning supplies. Phosphates is something people didn’t worry about for a long time. That’s why we’ve grown so dependent on it. But now, researchers have realized that phosphates have a negative effect on the environment.

When we throw phosphate-containing products away or they seep down our drains, the phosphates end up in aquatic ecosystems. These include rivers, lakes, ponds, and even oceans. Mostly, phosphates promote excess growth in algae, which disrupts delicate ecosystems and upsets the predator/prey balance, and lessens water quality. It decreases oxygen in water (which our fish friends need to survive!), and obliterates valuable food resources and animal habitats.

As a result of these changes, we’re seeing outbreaks of illness and death in huge numbers of fish. Humans aren’t immune to these changes either, as the algae in the water can sometimes make the water toxic to us, as well as promote the growth of harmful bacteria that seek to make us sick.

This isn’t an easy problem to solve. Water clean-up across the globe needs to happen continually and remain monitored to make sure that these essential aquatic ecosystems stay healthy and as nature intended. There is one part that all of us can play though, and that’s reducing the amount of phosphate products we use. That’s why our eco descaler is important, and why we’ve made eco-friendliness a priority.