The dirt on green cleaners

Vanessa Richmond | Image: Dwight Allott | Published: February 26, 2008

North America society is pretty messed up when it comes to grime: dust, odours and stains aren’t so much physical as psychological realities. We associate dirt with evil without a second thought: playing dirty, dirty tricks. On the other hand, we all know that cleanliness is next to godliness.

So it’s no wonder that even those who travel by bike or hybrid, eat organic local food, wear locally made sustainable clothes, and recycle at work and home often sheepishly admit to owning a bottle of bleach or a formaldehyde-laced bathroom cleanser. The promise of saving the environment hasn’t convinced anyone but the most ardent environmentalist to empty out their cupboards crammed with toxic cleansers.

Part of the problem has been due in no small part to packaging and poor marketing: who can blame shoppers for passing by ineffective, earnestly packaged green cleansers? But recently, several smart, well-designed effective eco-cleaners have made their way to the front of the shelves and into the shopping bags of both green and mainstream consumers.

Suddenly, green clean – a deeper, truer, purer type of clean – is not only possible but de rigueur. Consumers are turning to the new eco products because of their design, effectiveness and environmentally conscious formulations – often in that order.

“People try it because of its packaging and design and maybe its story,” says James Roberts, owner of Batten Industries in North Vancouver, which makes Nellie’s Dryer Balls and Nellie’s Laundry Soda. “Then they buy it again because it works.” Nellie’s joins a host of local products in hitting all three marks.

Roberts, a 40-year-old with the energy and clothes of a teenager, got his start in 1991 making licence-plate key chains and selling them at the PNE. Over the years, he has accumulated an eclectic range of products, from the Aerolatte milk frother to customizable gift cards. He ­didn’t set out to make and sell an eco product, and is what he calls an “accidental environmentalist,” but along the way has become “converted.”

He admits to still being a contradiction – he drives a truck, for example. But he says he’s learned a lot about the environment along the way, and because he doesn’t

have shareholders, he can run his business in a way that he believes is really ethical. Roberts says Nellie’s has been successful, “but for me it’s all about long-term; I don’t have to make the decisions based on what will keep investors happy.”

Someone brought the dryer ball idea to him five years ago, and Roberts bought the rights, then started selling the product at trade shows. It’s a simple idea: pop the bristly rubber ball into the dryer, and your clothes come out soft and fluffy – without the use of chemicals. They sold so well that the Shopping Channel picked them up. Then a company called On-Tel, which manufactures, markets and distributes “As Seen on TV” products, bought the rights to sell a version of them, called Dryer Max, across North America in big chains such as Wal-Mart, Zellers and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Roberts still carries his own line of the dryer balls and sells them to a niche market including Whole Foods, Choices and Restoration Hardware. The line is called Nellie’s, after his mother, a nurse, who “never ­wasted anything.” And it’s her image that adorns all the packaging, in 1950s retro illustrations. The design, his mom’s image, and what he calls “the story” are what make the line successful, he says.

Roberts came up with the “story” after he started selling the dryer balls. He explains that “people at trade shows are the best focus group.” Some had allergies; others wanted an eco-alternative to fabric softener. “All you have to do is read a box of Bounce,” Roberts says. “It says things like ‘not for use on children’s sleepware or garments labelled as flame resistant… Keep out of reach of toddlers and pets.’” At his travelling exhibition booth, Roberts places a dryer sheet in water, so people can watch the sediment form at the bottom.

After the dryer balls, Roberts developed Nellie’s Laundry Soda, because “the dryer isn’t the only problem.” He says people can’t believe they only need a tablespoon of the detergent and say it must be super concentrated. “No – we just don’t put fillers in it, and we don’t recommend you use more than you need.”

That’s one of his main criticisms of the laundry industry. “The recommended amount is what you’d need if you actually rolled around in the mud,” he says. And the measuring cup they provide is bigger than the recommended amount, so people use even more. “Imagine if everyone used just 20 per cent less detergent – the impact on big brands’ bottom lines. So they don’t tell you,” Roberts alleges.

But regardless of cost, waste or environmental impact, people have used toxic cleaners because there seems to be an ingrained, if subliminal, belief that only things that are bad for the environment can clean things properly. And because chemical manufacturers and advertisers have exploited the cultural fear of dirt for decades, green cleaners have a huge hurdle to overcome.

"I used to work on Mr. Clean," says Marc Stoiber, the founder of Change, a green brand consultancy, “and when we’d go to visit housewives in their homes, we found that their value system all equates with cleanliness,” he says. “It’s about the feeling of being a good mother, doing what’s right for your family, being a good woman.”

He says it’s why products such as Method, a popular cleaning line with design-conscious packaging, are a success. “It works, which means I’m a good mom. It’s eco, so I’m a good Mother Earth.