I can understand an automatic air freshener in a public toilet environment perhaps – but in the home?
  
I am a reformed air freshener abuser. I hate to think how many thousands of dollars I spent on commercial air fresheners over the years. If there was a new product on the market, I would try it. None of them lived up to the hype and I’m glad I pretty much kicked the habit as the industry has continued to find new ways to get folks to part with their cash and add to the waste stream.
  
Building on the insanity of automatic insecticide dispensers are the automatic air fresheners with odor detecting technology. Some are supposedly so “smart” they’ll detect odors even before you notice them. Just what we all needed – to be not able to smell something we can’t smell. 
  
Allowing a product to discharge when it decides it needs to is very clever idea from a sales viewpoint . It’s a great way to help guarantee the need to buy more refills perhaps sooner rather than later.
  
It always concerns me what the fragrance ingredients are in these things – and that information can be hard to find as the fragrance blend is often “proprietary” and secret.
  
In addition to secret-sauce fragrances, there are the propellants to consider. These may contain butane and/or propane (both fossil fuels) or Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) 152a which has a atmospheric lifetime of 1.4 years and a Global Warming Potential (100 yr. Integrated Time Horizon) of 140.
  
Aside from the environmental issues associated with this gunk, stuff smells for a reason – and sometimes the smell is one you might want to look into for safety reasons; like a gas leak or something else you would be better off dealing with rather than trying to mask.
 
While nasty products like this will no doubt keep popping up, taxing our already over-burdened environment, it’s been encouraging to see “greener” air fresheners becoming more readily available, such as those using natural ingredients in a refillable atomizer bottle instead of a pressurized can.
 
There are also air fresheners you can make yourself – learn more here.