people against dirty

the clean-phone is live!

Little things can be big milestones as we get more established over here.
This afternoon we are very chuffed. Chuffed is our new favourite word, which may have gone out of fashion in the sixties, but to an American spirit chuffed seems to be just of the moment.
And we are chuffed to announce that we can today officially start receiving customer calls here in the office.

Big round of applause...

Up to now our very own Felicia has been delighting UK callers with her Californian accent. But as more and more of our lovely customers are getting active on the phone, we thought it was time to bring it home and let Felicia weave her magic for US customers. We are sending her a Big 'Thank You!'for taking such good care of all our British friends and co-conspirators.

Instead, we give you Phil! recently back from Australia sporting a new floppy hair do.

Here he is taking the first call on the clean-phone from a man called David.

We plan to take turns in answering your calls, so more pictures of the rest of us chatting away to come.

In case you are wondering what the number is - it is the one printed on our super-duper 100% recycled plastic (that's PCR to you) bottles.

how to use your plastic bag rehab

Last week we sent out our cheeky little clean-o-gram which included a creative competition to win one of our green Plastic Bag Rehab bags and we have been bowled over by the creativity of you, fellow British people against dirty.

This blog entry is dedicated to some of our favourite entries. Here they are (slightly edited)

"I think the best home for your Plastic Bag Rehab is covering his knackwurst (so to speak.) Merely cut a couple of holes in the base, pop the carrying handles over his shoulder et voila! Phil could wear it as lederhosen."

..Nichola even sent us this picture so we could envisage our own Philthy Phil clothed.

"I will lay it on the floor in the bed room with a little bit of cat nip in the bottom. My cat 'Her ladyship Tibbles van der Snugglebug' will come out from under the bed  in a much calmer fashion then normal (ie being poked at with a feather duster until she gives up). I will gather up the bag, tickle her head and then deposit her on the sofa (where she lives when the 'two legs' go out)"

...Needless to say that in return for her bag Katy has promised to send us pictures of 'Her ladyship Tibbles van der Snugglebug'.

This is the cream of the crop - and we might share a few more at a later date. But for now: That's all folks!

good clean stuff

 

As we got started in the UK, we hit a couple bumps in the road here and there (we're still not quite used to driving on the left side of the road).  One of those bumps involved damaged bottles.  The actual cleaner was still good, but some of the bottles were badly dented and scraped.  What to do with the damaged stuff?  We didn't want to scrap it, so we had it all shipped to our our office and had a think.

We eventually decided to repurpose it all, and give it away.  As a newcomer in the UK, we've been trying to introduce ourselves to everyone via shiny, happy samples.  We've found our products are our best form of marketing.  So, we put a blurb on some of our ads to email us at talkclean@methodproducts.co.uk, and we'll send you some good clean stuff.  We've also been giving a bunch to schools.  Problem solved.  Here are Louise and Ryan decanting from bad bottles to good (Ryan is our regulatory guy visiting from San Francisco who goes by the title "good cop"). 

We searched high and low for some packing material that wasn't landfill fodder.  At first, we used all of the packing stuff that came with our new computers and then Phil's old supply chain magazines (riveting read, those).  Then David came up with the idea of using all of the shredded paper produced by all of our neighboring offices.  If you're really good at jigsaws, you just might find some scandalous stuff in there.

november clean-o-gram

Long time, no chin wag. Chinwag, by the way, is our new favorite British expression since we crossed the pond from San Francisco. We’re also fond of gobsmacked.

In this month’s clean-o-gram, we have gratuitous nudity, a dirty little secret, a cool free bag, outrageous gurning, and a call for method mums.

the full monty

We recently hit a nice milestone worthy of streaking. Our new Go Naked cleaner (naked because it sports no dyes or fragrances) is the first cleaning bottle in the UK made entirely from 100% recycled plastic. That means all the plastic in the bottle comes from plastic that has previously been recycled by someone else. It has been completely reincarnated. Our lovely line of hand washes are next, followed soon by every bottle we make.

We think carefully about the past, present, and future of every product in our line. By moving to 100% recycled plastic, we hope to create a demand (and a shiny, happy future) for some of the plastic you are recycling in your council bins. And, hopefully, an example for other bigger companies to follow. As you can see, Phil, our illustrious “brain of the supply chain”, has been hard at work.

dirty little secret

We like to share dirty little secrets. We want everyone to rethink how we clean. This month’s is definitely gobsmacking (and a bit controversial too).

Antibacterial soaps are pesticides. Meaning the ingredients in them are used to kill bugs. When you use these soaps on yourself or your children, you could be absorbing pesticides into your system via your skin. They expose us to questionable chemicals that don’t necessarily work any better at dealing with household germs than good old soap and water. We think you can be pro-clean without being anti-bacterial. Gobsmacked? Here’s the full story.

detoxing britain

At method, we’re on a mission. We’re trying to detox one home at a time. So, we’re popping up in more and more stores across the UK, including lots of Waitrose, John Lewis, Tesco, and Sainsbury stores, as well as Ocado. Most recently, we brought our cheeky little hand washes to many of the Boots stores across the UK.

We’re not in every store yet (far from it), but hopefully one near you. If you’d like to scout out your closest store, please try out our handy dandy method finder. 

plastic bag rehab

We like to share the wealth. We just got our hands on 50 of these stylish totes, designed by our very own Sally and American eco-stylist Danny Seo. Since the average shopper uses 16 plastic bags each week, this bag features 16 creative uses on the back. Our favorite is #8 (“a bottomless carryall for emotional baggage.”)

Since we only have 50 bags to share (until we can beg our team in San Francisco for more), we’re having a little contest. Email us with your most creative use for the bag, along with your mailing address. The top 50 ideas (as chosen by our nudist Phil), will each receive a bag to help carry home your Christmas goose.

gurning against dirty

We met many of you in person at the innocent fete this summer where we challenged everyone to pull a face against dirty. Here are your fabulous gurning photos (the rest of you can gurn vicariously). Lovely mugs, one and all, including our Nicole here, our doctor of plan-it-ology (she’s thrilled we’re sending this picture around the internet).

calling all method mums

We’re looking for a few method mums to join our advisory group every month or so to test and talk about products and where we should be going. If you’re interested in our cleaning revolution and could spend a morning a month with us near our office in Richmond (we promise Phil will keep his clothes on), please send us an email with your favorite song to listen to while cleaning. Cheesy 80’s music scores extra points.

We hope you enjoyed our little chin wag. We would love your comments.

dirty little secret: antibacterial soaps

Antibacterial soaps are pesticides.  Meaning the ingredients in them are used to kill bugs.

When you use these soaps on yourself or your children, you could be absorbing pesticides into your system via your skin. 

Many public bodies such as The American Medical Association do not recommend antibacterial soaps.  They don't recommend them for use in your home.  They don't even recommend them for use in pediatrician's offices.  The only place they'd like to see these soaps is in hospitals.

Antibacterial soaps aren't effective at killing viruses that make you sick. The companies that make antibacterials have made a fortune pushing their “bacteria are evil” agenda. Through their marketing and advertising campaigns, they’ve created a sub-set of the population that’s compulsive about wiping down everything from grocery store carts to airplane armrests.

Antibacterial soaps claim to kill 99% of bacteria. But you don’t catch the common cold or the flu from bacteria. You get them from viruses. So is that antibacterial soap really making you less sick, or just exposing you to a dirty ingredient?

In addition, adding chlorinated water to some antibacterial products creates chloroform, which you then inhale. Chloroform is a suspected carcinogen. It’s also that stuff that bad guys use to knock out their victims in action movies.

Keep in mind that antibacterial products are designed to kill living things, namely bacteria. Guess what else is a living thing? You.

The Solution:

Wash your hands with good old soap and water. Done properly, it’s effective in getting rid of pesky germs.

Ideally, you’d wash with warm water and a good, paraben-free soap that is made from good stuff. Also, take your time with it. Your routine should take you anywhere between one and three minutes to really get the job done. Remember too that dirt you can see will come off right away, but the germs that you can’t will need some scrubbing before they go slip-sliding down the drain.