Method has a new way of packaging refill products such as their foaming hand wash refill and their laundry detergent, and dish soap. They use a pouch with easy pour spout that they claim uses 83% less footprint than a rigid plastic bottle.  It uses less plastic, energy, and water. Refills are in widespread use in Europe, where they are more green and landfills are as plentiful.

The pouch itself is a stock pouch from Winpack International, so more vendors may start using this packaging. Consumers can save money by purchasing refills, while companies can actually make more money. Less fuel is utilized transporting packaging and essentially water. Concentrated refills save even more money, and just require the addition of water.

It will take some time for consumers to accept refilling. Hand pump soaps are one area in which refills have gained acceptance.

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Clorox has made a big splash with the Green Works like of green cleaning products. They are the green categories’ sales leader.

How green is the their Natural All-Purpose Cleaner? They claim 99% all natural ingredients. MSDS sheet shows only hazardous ingredients as Alkyl polyglucoside (lowers water surface tension, enabling chemicals to spread and penetrate easily) and Ethyl alcohol. Clorox has said their alkyl polyglucoside comes from coconut oil.

According to Treehugger – “Preservative (Kathon) and colorant (Milliken Liquitint Blue HP dye and Bright Yellow dye X); — make up the circa 1% of the non-“natural” petroleum-derived portion of the cleaners (though Clorox says Kathon will biodegrade within 28 days.”

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