Carbon Negative Cleaning with byMATTER

I have long been committed to eco-friendly cleaning brands and making sure that my husband and I were keeping chemicals out of our home. As I learned more about what was in conventional cleaning products I felt that we needed to be making sure that what we were using was as natural as possible for various reasons.

The average household contains about 62 toxic chemicals, say environmental experts. We’re exposed to them routinely — from the phthalates in synthetic fragrances to the noxious fumes in oven cleaners. Ingredients in common household products have been linked to asthma, cancer, reproductive disorders, hormone disruption and neurotoxicity.

There are also numerous “all-purpose” cleaning products on the market. These products usually contain detergents, grease-cutting agents, solvents and/or disinfectants. The specific chemicals in these ingredients include ammonia, ethylene glycol monobutyl acetate, sodium hypochlorite and/or trisodium phosphate. Depending on the ingredients used, all-purpose cleaners can irritate the skin, eyes, nose and throat. They can be highly poisonous to both humans and animals if swallowed. And if we look beyond human health, none of these ingredients are good for the environment or our waterways, and oftentimes have been manufactured by chemical companies I would rather not support as well!

Whilst I have been finding quite a few clean and plant based cleaning products I have loved using, when it came to sustainability there were a lot of issues with packaging and accountability that kept them from being perfect in my eyes. Nothing seemed to tick every box. So when Holly who had founded byMATTER reached out to us it was a dream partnership to get to feature an incredible cleaning brand that was carbon negative and with fully recyclable packaging. It felt like a line we could really fully get behind.

When the products arrived at our house in Maine, I was thrilled with how beautiful they looked and smelled. After three years of research and development, the brand is truly formed around both science and design to provide incredible results within all purpose cleaning and prolonging the life of our clothing before they need to be laundered. 

byMATTER is powered by plant-based surfactants and active probiotics.Their  fast-working solution includes carefully selected probiotics that work at a molecular level to outcompete and eventually eliminate odour-causing bacteria. Their products are 100% non-toxic and safe and made with 100% natural origin fragrance. You can truly smell the lavender and eucalyptus included within the bottles, and my husband even asked what I had been spraying on his sweaters as he loved it so much (cleaning is not normally something that excites him!). 

Their packaging uses mainly glass and aluminum because both have much higher actual recycling rates than plastic and can be infinitely recycled. They are using solar energy in production, and manufacturing with ECOCERT-approved ingredients. They offset their end-to-end CO2 emissions using certified CO2 offsetting projects, and have already protected 278,600 square meters of rainforest in the Madre de Dios region in Peru. On top of all of this, they are also a 1% For the Planet member.

At a time when all of us can really do with eliminating as many toxins as possible from our lifestyle, this minimal brand is providing maximum results in this arena. It has truly been a joy to add the another day freshener to our laundry room, and anything that prevents me from having to do less washing and use less energy and resources is something I will always advocate for as a wider solution to human consumption. The cleaner has truly been effective within our kitchen, and again almost works as a natural diffuser in leaving a beautiful if subtle scent behind. 

I am thrilled to have byMATTER as our first cleaning brand here on Rêve En Vert, and would encourage you all to explore the line further HERE! 

Follow along the day to day journey @corahilts on instagram!