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Innovation

With Method ultra-concentrated laundry detergent, only a drop will do

Method's new 8x concentrated laundry detergent aims to please the environment by doing away with excess water that costs manufacturers and consumers money.
Written by Andrew Nusca, Contributor

Up to 70 percent of conventional laundry detergents contain water, which is expensive for manufacturers to ship and consumers to buy.

Will consumers bite on ultra-concentrated laundry detergent?

Method's new 8x concentrated laundry detergent packs 25 loads in a 300 mL bottle, easily a sixth of the footprint of a conventional 2x concentrated detergent bottle.

The company says its "Smartclean" product is the first detergent to receive cradle-to-cradle certification, given to products that are "environmentally intelligent" from start-to-finish.

The plant-based detergent uses 95 percent natural and renewable ingredients, and Method says it requires 33 percent less energy to produce than traditional detergents.

The question: whether consumers brains are willing to accept using mere drops of a detergent to wash clothing.

Most consumers are accustomed to using too much detergent, which is indirectly good for a manufacturer (more product used, more product sold). But it can be a vicious cycle: more soap means a longer rinse cycle and a lot less environmentally friendly.

Method uses a pump that offers detergent in the right dose. (Probably a good idea -- the more concentrated the formula, the more exponentially worse a potential overdose.)

[via Greenbiz]

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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