NEW PRODUCT Method Smarty Dish

[tomturbomatic]

I walked into the loan station to check out a book and a staffer was sharing coupons and samples. In a little book-shaped folder was a one load lump of fragrance-free Method Smarty Dish non-toxic dishwasher detergent. From the side of the package:

What's in it: Mineral cleaning salts, naturally derived + non-toxic anti-spotting agents, surfactant, starch+protein cleaning enzymes, cellulose-derived coating + binder, seaweed-derived dispersing agent. FOR DETAILED INGREDIENTS TO TO METHODHOME.COM. At first I thought it said methadone.

It comes in pink grapefruit and fragrance-free formulas. I think I will place it in the silverware basket along with a dose of STPP. In the Ultra Wash, it will have a wash and a rinse before the main wash to dissolve and do anything it's going to do. In the 18, it would have three water changes before the main wash. I don't know if this will dissolve like a pop-rock or an all day sucker.

 

[tlee618]

Very interesting Tom, be sure and let us know how it works.

 

[supersuds]

Hasn't this stuff been available for years at Target?

 

[jetcone]

Oh I love that!

methadone!! HAHAHAHAH!

I was just reading the METHOD label in Target on Thursday, the tag lines on the bottle caught my eye, "natural" "safe" biodegradeable, natural sources etc....

when I read the ingredient list and saw disguised surfactants I had to laugh, it's all hype!!

And it doesn't matter wether your surfactants are derived from Coconuts or Crude they are all chemicals when they become surfactants! What is important is not all surfactants biodegrade nicely or quickly.
If you are going green with your detergents then you need to select surfactants that degrade easily; that's what matters.

 

[tomturbomatic]

But biodegradable surfactants have been mandated since sometime in the late 60s or early 70s with the Clean Rivers Act, which was not in protest of Joan's stand up act, to prevent the surfaces from becoming suds covered downstream from points of turbulance like spillways, rapids, sewage treatment plant discharge pipes, etc. I remember ads on TV and posters showing sudsy rivers. This was also the time period in which rivers caught fire.

 

[supersuds]

I think you're both right.

They're implying there's something "toxic" about other DW detergent by saying their ingredients are non-toxic, and that the others are NOT biodegradable while theirs is, but its mostly marketing. They were non-phosphate when nobody else was, but even that doesn't differentiate them now.