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If you haven't already heard of 'method' eco-friendly cleaning products, chances are you soon will. In the US it's what Ecover is to us in Europe and now method is also slowly but surely appearing on UK shop shelves. Its new 'go naked' surface cleaner, which comes in a 100 per cent recycled bottle, particulary caught our attention. We met up with Adam Lowry, co-founder of method, to find out more about the company...and going naked.
"The go naked surface cleaner is, like method's other products, made from naturally derived ingredients that work as surfactants which absorb dirt rather that chemically degrade them" Lowry explains.
He says the company uses the term "naturally derived" because, although method uses natural raw materials such as sugar beet, coconut oil and corn, the ingredients go through a transforming process and Lowry doesn't think it's fair to tell consumers the products are "natural" or certain ingredients are "organic" (which some of them are) after they've been processed.
To make it even more attractive for us, the go naked cleaner now comes in a 100 per cent recycled bottle. Actually, from now on all bottles that are produced for method will be made from 100 per cent recycled post-consumer plastic. This is part of their adopted "cradle to cradle" philosophy, which argues that materials should be designed to be recycled indefinitely.
The company aims to make all products biodegradable and all bottles recycled and recyclable. We're also quite impressed that method gets Michael Braungart, co-author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, to sign off every formula before a product goes into production.
To add to that, method is working towards being carbon neutral and is currently offsetting the company's carbon emissions through both its own project and a couple of carbon offsetting companies, which Lowry assures us are completely traceable and reliable.
All in all, this sounds good to us. But why does method seem to care more about colours and designs of the bottles than telling people the nitty gritty details of the eco-stuff it does? Lowry answers: "We consider ourselves a dark green company within a light-green shell -- we want to appeal to the mainstream by making our products appealing."
Well, they certainly look and sound appealing. Now we just look forward to finding out how well they work...
Most major retailers now stock method's £3 go naked surface cleaners.
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