Plastic bucket with cleaning supplies on wood background

Then there are solvents. Shell is one of the companies trying to educate the public about the links between its products and the items they use around the home.

Thanks to products such as ShellSol industrial hydrocarbon solvents, the performance of exterior paints is enhanced, meaning that painting the outside of the house becomes less of a frequent chore.

The reason is that the solvent makes it easier to apply in order to provide a tough, durable coating that lasts for years.

And in parts of the world where homes are built from timber, Shell solvents are used to safeguard their structural integrity. Modern methods for preserving construction timber use an environmentally-friendly process where the softwood is vacuum-treated with a solvent-based solution containing fungicide and insecticide.