behind the bottle

sustainable packaging

so much more than just a pretty bottle

Packaging is something near and dear to our hearts at method. Long neglected as merely "containment," method is known for giving home care products beautiful, vibrant, even sexy packaging. What's less known is the greenness of our packaging.

Packaging sustainability is a core skill at method. And we don't just look at things like recyclability or the latest "biodegradable" plastic. We actually dig deep to understand what really happens to our packaging when you're done with it, and we build that into what we design in the first place.

This can be a tough job, and it can be complex, but it's important. We don't just want packaging that is recyclable, we want packaging that actually gets recycled. To make sure that's what's happening, a few years ago we interviewed garbage collectors and recyclers all around the country. We learned that certain colors like green, very light blue, and clear, are most often recycled, while plastics like white PET (water bottle plastic), a very common plastic used in green cleaning products, are usually confused with their HDPE (think milk bottles) counterparts at recyclers and actually end up in landfills. That's why you don't see any white PET method bottles.

method employees with the silo to be installed and used to manufacture 100% recycled plastic bottles

There has also been a lot of excitement in recent years about bio-plastics like PLA. At method, we've run the numbers and determined what's really greener. We can actually model the full lifecycle impact of traditional plastic vs. bio-plastic to see how the carbon footprints compare. As you can see, post-consumer PET has a very low carbon footprint and is commonly accepted for recycling. Conversely, bio-plastics cannot be recycled, can contaminate recycling streams or most often end up in landfills where they are extremely slow to degrade.

This is an issue that our co-founder, Adam, has studied and written about in his blog. The end result is we've done our homework and determined that post-consumer PET is the best option available today from a carbon footprint standpoint, from a waste standpoint, and from a land use standpoint. We are, of course, always on the lookout for new, innovative materials that may solve some of the issues that remain, and we have given guidance to the Obama administration advocating the development of more robust, nationwide recycling and composting infrastructure.

We're proud of some of the innovations we've been able to bring to market, like the very first 100% PCR, custom PET bottle, and the first recyclable film packaging. But we're constantly looking for ways to get better. If you've got an idea, please let us know!