Some Consumers are Really Getting It!

Although there is still widespread confusion about aerosol spray products’ impact on the environment, some consumers have the facts straight and are sharing their knowledge. In a recent article on www.everydayhealth.com there is a section that points out that aerosol hairsprays haven’t contained CFCs since 1978 and they also have very low VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Anne Fritz in Every Day Health writes:

Many people still believe that the use of aerosol hair spray puts holes in the ozone layer. In reality, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which do destroy the ozone layer, were banned from hair sprays and other aerosols by the United States in 1978. In addition, since 1999, most major hair spray brands have been reformulated so that they contain a smaller percentage of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which increase smog, to meet tighter standards introduced by the California Air and Resource Board. Although these tougher standards are currently enforced only in California, most national brands offer the same product across the country — so even if you live in Nebraska, your hair spray is probably less harmful today than it was ten years ago.

In a blog posting on a site called www.tinychoices.com a mother talks about how the benefits of sunscreen outweigh the ‘costs.’ She finds that sunscreen in an aerosol spray container is much more convenient and effective to prevent sunburns on her kids than the more traditional lotion, and she researches to learn that consumer aerosol products don’t have CFCs (and haven’t for several decades) and are also recyclable! Karina of Tiny Choices writes:

These days, though, if something is related closely to food or body care the propellants are more inert – usually propane or butane (though flammable) or CO2 or nitrous oxide. Interestingly, the aerosol products industry group reports that in recent studies 7 out of 10 American’s think that CFCs are still present in aerosol cans! Even though this has been outlawed for several decades in the US.

So if the problem isn’t the ozone then it stands to reason that the aerosol can may be the more appropriate choice over a plastic bottle, right? But how to take care of end-of-life issues?

Earth911 points out that I should be able to recycle at the local level, as long as the can is actually empty… My research turned up another resource, though, which is interesting and hugely useful for people with limited municipal recycling options: 1800recycling.com has a very useful search feature on their website that looks up where you can recycle hard to recycle materials.

It looks like we’re off to a good start in 2011 with 2 great examples of consumers and the media getting the facts about aerosol products and sharing those facts with their readers.