Here to clean up our environmental act

Ramon Phillips is determined to change the face of the cleaning products market in Wanganui.
Eco-Green, specialists in ecologically friendly cleaning products opened for business on Wanganui's Ingestre street only two weeks ago.
Mr Phillips, who is Wanganui born and bred, said he is happy to be back in his hometown, surrounded by his brothers and their families.
Mr Phillips who has based his Eco Green business in the Phillips Electrical building, run by his brother Jeff, has barely settled back into Wanganui life, having recently returned from Korea where he has lived for the past eight years.
Having studied Ecology at Canterbury University, Mr Phillips has a deep interest in environmental conservation, a passion that was postponed while he taught in Korea.
However, on returning to Wanganui he reconnected with his ecological side and saw an opportunity to promote environmental awareness.
His company, which imports cleaning products from Australia, is hoping to inform people of the negative impact of synthetic chemical cleaners on the environment.
Eco-Green products are a range of different cleaning solutions for various tasks, domestic and industrial.
They are produced by the Environmental Technologies Group (ETG) based in Western Australia, which creates concentrated solutions of specific strains of bacteria, whose enzymes break down waste into a form that can then be digested by the bacteria.
The bacteria, according to ETG's product information sheet, continue to produce enzymes and digest the waste until the food source is entirely exhausted.
Mr Phillips said the greatest benefit of such products is their lack of environmental impact, as the bacteria are entirely non-toxic and biodegradable. He said that not only do the products improve the environment where the treatment is occurring, but also ensure that the waste being flushed into the treatment system down line is of a far higher quality, reducing the rate of remediation required, saving energy and thus costs.
Though Mr Philllips plans to offer solutions to larger industries, he is at present focusing on the domestic market in order to build awareness of the Eco Green products.
Mr Phillips believes that products like this can be used on large-scale environmental hazards, such as the algal blooms in Virginia lake.
He has made a proposal to the council, which outlines his product's ability to entirely erase the problem.
It is a solution which he feels would be far superior to the current system of ultrasonic purifiers at the lake, and cost effective in the long run.
Though Eco-Green products are initially more expensive, Mr Phillips believes they are cost effective because of the long-term action of the bacteria. "As demand increases the cost of products like these will reduce, their value to humanity is undeniable," he said.