Product Review: Method Squeaky Green Laundry Detergent

In a world where customers are accustomed to thinking that a larger package for the same price always equals greater value, it’s refreshing to see the revolution that has occurred in recent years thanks to companies like Method.  Today it’s difficult to find laundry soap that isn’t labelled as ‘concentrated’.  In this area, Method still leads the way.  Method Squeaky Green laundry detergent is very concentrated.  A 946 mL (32 fl oz) bottle is labelled as providing 32 loads, dispensed in a cap-cup that looks little larger than a thimble.

The benefit of highly concentrating any product is that you can ship it more efficiently.  A typical non-concentrated laundry detergent is mostly water.  It costs as much to ship a kilogram of water as it does to ship a kilogram of soap, but shipping extra water with the product has no benefit because the customer already has as much water as he or she needs – the valuable part of the product is the detergent.  A detergent concentrated three times requires three times less energy to ship per washload (which is the important quantity).  That means a third of the greenhouse gas emissions, and importantly for the producer, a third of the shipping cost.

A bottle of Method laundry detergent is considerably small than a bottle of non-concentrated laundry soap.  Although this means more packaging per liter of product, the result is less packaging per washload.  The bottle of Method laundry detergent I recently bought is made of ordinary polyethelene (used to make many plastic products) in a thin sleeve of polyethylene terephthalate (used to make soda pop bottles).  These are petrochemical plastics that require crude oil to produce, and the bottle is not marked as being produced from recycled plastic.

According to a recent article in Worldchanging, however, the company has begun to use recyclable and recycled plastic bags for many of its products.  There is no mention of whether the company plans to use bioplastics, but apparently the life cycle analysis they performed concluded that virgin plastic bags were the most environmentally efficient packaging to use.

Inside the package, the detergent itself is almost completely plant-derived.  The bottle lists all ingredients, and what plants most of them are derived from. including soy, coconut, and corn.  The last ingredient on the list (indicating the smallest amount) is purified water.

What Method does not say, on the package or on their website, is the relationship between the hardness of your local water and the effectiveness of a detergent.  Hard water reduces the effectiveness of soap, so detergent makers prescribe a dose for the worst-case scenario in their marketing area.  If you live on the Canadian prairies, or the American Great Plains, your water is probably sufficiently hard that you need a full dose as indicated on the detergent package.

However, if you live on the West Coast, you probably have much softer water.  For example, in Vancouver, BC, the municipal water is soft enough that you only need about half the amount prescribed on your detergent package; in fact, using a full dose will result in unrinsed soap residue in your laundry.  Thus if you live in an area with soft water, your one-liter bottle of Method detergent will probably last closer to 64 loads.

Half a cap full of Method Squeaky Green laundry detergent has plenty to clean any load of laundry I’ve used it for, although I do need to use more to pre-treat stains.  As a stain treatment, it has been effective against average food stains, but not so effective against heavy grease or heavily pigmented food stains.

Other highlights of Method’s products, according to their website:

• Safety is one of their guiding principles.  Ceaning your house effectively should not harm your health.
• They have employed a designer to make their product packaging stand out on the shelves, while still being efficient.
• Method believes that flowers, not chlorine or ammonia, should be the fragrance associated with cleanliness.
• They employ environmental scientists and toxicologists to ensure that their products are both safe and effective.

Responsibility Rating

Environmental: Very good
Social: Very good
Quality: Excellent
Price: Excellent
Overall Rating: Excellent

Location

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