Veles All-Purpose Home Cleaner Review 2020 | Eco-friendly, negative waste, refillable cleaning solution
The Top Line: NOT a buy at this time, but we definitely want to keep an eye on Veles for the future!
OK, we are super impressed with what Veles is trying to do here — bringing to market a closed loop, negative waste cleaning product made of food waste! But at current price and the limited amount of surfaces this cleaner works on, we cannot whole-heartedly recommend this product.
We will say though, if you were looking for a sustainable stainless steel cleaner (which Veles is not marketing the product as, but they should…), this might be it! It cleans our stainless steel surfaces significantly better than Method’s Stainless Steel product (which is the only other product we’ve seen on the market that isn’t full of chemicals, but unfortunately it does not work).
We will be keeping an eye out as Veles updates and roll out more products.
The Breakdown:
Cost & Products: $20.00 + $3.00 shipping, comes with refillable aluminum spray bottle, and 16oz of all purpose cleaner; refills come at $15 for 32 oz.
How ‘Clean’ Is This? VERY. This might be one of the cleanest brands we have tried yet. Veles is closed loop, and actually negative waste — they make its cleaner out of food waste!
Packaging: Came in recyclable cardboard box, stuffed with a biodegradable vegetable starch based ‘tissue paper’ — it was very pretty, and appreciate that it is compostable in accordance with ASTM D6400. It disintegrates in water without polluting groundwater resources.
Purchasing & Shipping: Simple enough!
Good to know: We think calling this an ‘all-purpose’ cleaner is a bit of a stretch, as it is not to be used on any porous surfaces (they are currently testing on marble, wood and laminate) — which would include stone, wood, and paint. That leaves ceramics, glass, plastic and steel as surfaces we felt comfortable using it on.
Coupons: None that we found.
Extra Info: You can listen to the CEO here on Audible.
What’s Your Impact? Food is a major source of our waste stream that’s primarily landfilled, racking up staggering amounts of greenhouse gas emissions during its life cycle. Because of food waste, landfills are the third largest producer of methane, a gas 30x more potent than CO2. Throwing away food also represents a major loss of water. Inside the 1.3 billion tons of food wasted globally each year is 45 trillion gallons of water.
The Experience
Context: We tried Veles on a few surfaces in our home (stainless steel in the kitchen, and porcelain sinks), but struggled to really use this as an ‘all-purpose’ cleaner as we did not want to use it on our stone countertops.
This cleaner is definitely strong! Cut through the grease on our vent hood!
This worked very well on our stainless steel surfaces, leaving NO STREAKS. We have been very unhappy with Method’s Stainless Steel cleaner, which leaves streaks all over.
We need this to work on more surfaces (you are recommended not to use on porous surfaces, eg wood, stone, etc.) for us to really buy into this as an all-purpose cleaner
The Cost
Veles is the most expensive option we have tried:
Money Report: While we commend Veles on how they are innovating home cleaning with an negative waste option (we are rooting for them!), we don’t think this price is sustainable for most families.
For Veles to make real impact they need to be able to offer this at a wider scale — which means we need to see this cleaner work on more surfaces, and at a more reasonable price point.
The Good:
✔ Negative waste! We love that this is taking food waste out of our landfills
✔ The packaging is beautiful, and we appreciate the copy on the welcome card
✔ Cleans well! Especially impressed with the fact that it leaves our stainless steel streak free
The Bad:
✗ Extremely expensive :(
✗ Cannot use on many surfaces — especially stone and wood
Our Recommendation: NOT a buy at this time, but want to keep an eye on Veles for the future!
OK, we are super impressed with what Veles is trying to do here, bringing to market a closed loop, negative waste cleaning product made of food waste! But at current price and the limited amount of surfaces this cleaner works on, we cannot whole-heartedly recommend this product. We will say though, that it cleans our stainless steel surfaces MUCH better than Method’s Stainless Steel product.
We will be keeping an eye out as Veles updates and roll out more products.
We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!
