Eco-gimmick or good idea?

Greetings, Eco Geeks! Please forgive the long absence, I seem to have come down with the plague, but I am feeling better now.

Don’t you just love green marketing?

It’s everywhere now, especially in the home-cleaning sector.

Check out the latest advertising push for Arm &Hammer Essentials Cleaners. (The British accent on the announcer is a nice touch, as is the “free” sample available with $4.99 shipping and handling. Ahem.)

Three new products (a degreaser, glass cleaner and multi-surface cleaner) are sold with empty spray bottles with much smaller bottles of concentrated cleaner attached.

You fill the spray bottle with tap water and then dispense the concentrate into the bottle. When you run out, you keep the spray bottle and buy only a small refill.

“Just Fill, Twist and Go!”

Though I have no idea what’s in these “plant-based” cleaners, especially the neon-green multi-surface, I have to admit, that the idea — reusing plastic bottles — is positively brilliant and undeniably green-minded.

Not only do you decrease the amount of plastic bottles being manufactured and going into the waste stream, you’re saving the planet on the shipping end, too, because you won’t be demanding products that are 90 percent water to be trucked across the country, or as the case may be, the world. It’s including the often-overlooked “Reduce” into the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” mantra .

Read a review of the cleaners at Sustainable is Good. (Thanks to Eric Fetters, a former Herald reporter and Eco Geek fan, for the tip.)

You can also check out alternatives in my post on cleaning with vinegar and other food products or get the full deal from National Geographic’s Green Guide, featuring “Eight Essentials” for building a home-cleaning kit with eight basic ingredients that will help you make nearly every do-it-yourself cleaning recipe.

Please, share your green-cleaning success stories!

Write me here to share your thoughts or — better yet — comment below and start a broader conversation everyone can enjoy.