barry burton

Method

Soaps and household cleansers have long been a bastion of terrible design and nasty chemicals. Method is a newish company attempting to rectify this situation. Their tag-line is “People Against Dirty”. It’s catchy.

The graphic design on packaging is great, but even better, the industrial design of their bottles is wonderful—very functional and simply beautiful sitting out on the countertop. Most importantly, the cleansers are all biodegradable and avoid harsh chemicals. The packaging is minimal and designed to be fully recyclable.

One example of environmentally careless convention is laundry detergents. Most are diluted to give the impression of getting more for the money, but the extra water wastes plastics on packaging as well energy on transporting the weight of the unnecessary water. Method’s laundry detergents are concentrated, and not only does this prevent waste, it makes toting supplies to the laundry mat a more tolerable task.

Method is based in San Francisco and I have watched their distribution grow to Targets in Northern California, to Targets nationwide, and now to CVS/Pharmacies nationwide. Admittedly, the cleansers are not organic, but I think important first steps are being made. It’s good to see well designed and biodegradable products being distributed nationally on a growing scale. Hopefully the trend will continue.