Got a question? Burning desire to know if the chicken or egg came first? All the obvious questions about Mix Clean Green products are here! (For the chicken-egg debate, feel free to drop us a line).
Got a question? Burning desire to know if the chicken or egg came first? All the obvious questions about Mix Clean Green products are here! (For the chicken-egg debate, feel free to drop us a line).
Yes! We donate 5% of our profits on our products to Project Seagrass. The work that these guys do is, so, so important and has a profound impact on carbon emissions, biodiversity and even coastal erosion. Pop over here for
more info.
Your order will ship in 3-4 business days, however typically they ship within one working day. We like to give you the maximum amount of time so if there are any hiccups, we’ve got it covered.
We use Royal Mail to keep the carbon
footprint as low as possible as the postie will likely to coming down your
street anyway. We can’t yet offer free postage yet, though we continue to review this. Instead to keep costs as low as possible we have a flat rate of shipping of £3. If you want to keep costs down, then see if friends want to share an order maybe?
The product range is single-use plastic free. Most bottles (pouches have paper labels) now have plastic labels as the biodegradable labels were not lasting long enough. Eventually the plan is to move to printed bottles and pouches, but for now, this is the best option for Mix Clean Green (as an organically grown, micro-business). The other major type of plastic is the high-spec, reusable and fully recyclable plastic trigger.
Our refills are packaged in HOME COMPOSTABLE bio-plastic pouches (made form highly renewable materials), which will compost in 10-12 weeks, even the ziplock!!. So all the goodness from the pouch can be returned to the soil and help grow some lovely veg or flowers and feed the worms! If you don't compost then do have a look here for your local group to hand on your
food waste or pouches.
Top tip: Reuse the pouch after rinsing well, or if you prefer to snip and empty the pouch (often less messy), then simply rinse through the pouch to use it all up. The Multi Mix- this works well as a funnel when topping up with water, ditto for the Dish Mix!
We are a very low-waste business with pretty much everything that comes into the business being reused or recycled. Some of our products still come in plastic packaging that can’t be re-used by us and we continue to challenge businesses to see if they can
send it to us plastic-free. We even rinse the pots and pop it into containers to use for home cleaning! That way every drop of product from
manufacturing is used!
Kate's otherwise known as a Womble and has been banned from the tip (by Mr MCG). She goes during working hours and hides things to upcycle in the workshop ;) avid upcyclers! In the Biz, anything
that comes into the unit, gets reused at least once. Even tape tends to
be reused (usually to stick kids artwork up!).
We appreciate that our products might
not be for everyone, but also know that adding water at home, makes our
products much more sustainable. Our concentrate products save up to
95% of emissions created by transporting pre-mixed cleaning products to your
door. We honestly think it’s the way forwards.
We don't use chemical preservatives
so suggest using cooled, boiled water (heat can impact on the essential oils)
to make up our products as this means the water is the cleanest possible when
making it up at home, but it's not necessary (we use tap water at home).
We don’t generally try to be anti-bac as the mainstream products tend to
contain biocides which are really harmful to the environment. In addition to
this science has evidenced that bacteria play a really important role in our
well being. Lack of bacteria is linked to increases in inflammatory illnesses
in western cultures so bacteria (especially the ones in our homes) are really
important. However we totally understand that different folk want different
qualities in their products.
We’ve had a few products tested for antibac properties and the findings
were as follows:
Toilet mix-99.9% effective
Multi: 99.8%
Floor: 99.8%
We’ve not been able to fund lots of tests yet, so these were the ones we
felt were most important. Shiny Mix is very acidic so will be anti-bac too.
We choose to use well sourced organic
essential oils created as close to the U.K. (or the workshop!) as possible.
Plus we use only certain oils that need less organic matter (flowers or
leaves), waste (like orange oil which uses the rinds from juice production) to
create the oil, or Hydrosols (waste products) to enhance the smell. Even at the
super low levels (this removes the toxicity issues) we use oils that actually
clean as well. They have a purpose beyond scent.
The short version is that no fragrance, essential oils or synthetic is good for
the environment. However most synthetic fragrances used in your products are
petrochemical based, highly toxic to you and the environment, and leave a huge
carbon footprint. It’s been identified that half of all petrochemical emissions
come from creating VOCs (the other half being burned through cars, industry
etc).
In addition to this, synthetic scents (only a handful are considered truly eco,
and they’re really hard to source) have known health risks to humans and
wildlife. They don’t biodegradable, they cause cellular changes to organisms
and it goes up the food chain!
Unicorn poo, some magic and witchery. If you are interested then see more info here.
The cleaning pods we see everywhere
are popular because they easy to use, and sold as super eco. But, and this
is a big BUT, there are some real unknowns about PVA and the long term
environmental effects.
PVA or polyvinyl alcohol is derived from petroleum (a fair few of the
ingredients used to make it), it’s biodegradability is recorded as between 60%
in 32 days by (which is below the legislated limit which is 60% in 28
days in case you wondered, leaving 40% that potentially hasn’t!) through to
88%. This does vary according to the sources used but that just makes
things more and not less confusing. Add to this some research which has identified the PVA once
dissolved up to 75% can remain untreated through sewage works and ends up in
waterways. This latter research was funded by an eco cleaning products company,
however the research behind it is persuasive and they conclude much more
research needs to be done.
PVA is also known to inhibit oxygen transfer and absorb heavy metals and
contaminants (actually it’s used to do exactly this in some settings which is
useful in these instances). But that PVA is ingested by organisms and plants,
which then goes up the food chain (so maybe we’re ingesting PVA which has
absorbed a load of heavy metals and contaminants?). Scary stuff eh?
This is emerging data, but why risk it? Why not just go naked with your
cleaning products? (Not literally, though with ours you certainly could 😉).
So there you have it. We’d rather not pod-ther. Just to be sure.
Here's some reading for our fellow
nerds :
Biodegradability of Polyvinyl Alcohol Based Film Used
for Liquid Detergent CapsulesAssessment of Toxicity and Biodegradability of
Poly(vinyl alcohol)-Based Materials in Marine WaterDegradation of Polyvinyl Alcohol in US Wastewater
Treatment Plants and Subsequent Nationwide Emission EstimateAnd just because we love this site:
Detergent pods the view from Plastic Oceans.
Mix Clean Green products aren't Vegan certified anymore (for lots of terribly boring reasons!), however as I now know the ropes in order to meet the criteria and how to ask all the right questions, I'm confident that our newer products (core products such as Multi Mix and Scrub mix were previously registered and haven't changed) the range are Vegan-Society compliant!
We know it’s important to be
vegan-friendly, not just because we want to be inclusive, but because of the
well documented impact of rearing animals on global warming. It contributes to
deforestation, soil degradation, increased carbon emissions and that’s not
taking into account the water needed to grow food for animals and the subsequent
lack of food for humans on the planet. We know that for every product that
avoids animal derivatives is a win for the planet.
We are in the process of double
checking this, but at this point in time, as we don’t use any animal
derivatives, we are confident that our products will be considered Kosher.
We are in the process of double
checking this, but at this point in time, as we don’t use any animal
derivatives, we are confident that our products will be considered Halal.
We live in Devon, so I'm afraid this
is a cream then jam response.
Non-toxic at Mix means two
things: That when diluted these products will not be toxic to aquatic
life and that they are safe to around your children and pets.
We’ve had extensive eco-tox reports
to ensure that the impact of our products at every point (creation to down the
drain) have the least possible impact. So, you can be sure that we take
ecotoxicology very seriously.
We also use the term “non-toxic” to
mean that our products won’t harm your child or fur-baby if you use these
products around them. They won’t taste nice to eat, but the oils used are not
only high-grade but also used in very low doses, so it won’t harm or upset your
babies (human or furry). In addition to this, many of our ingredients are food
grade. We would just like to remind you to make sure that products are
kept out of reach of children and pets, and please DO NOT EAT MIX PRODUCTS
(though we do understand how tempting it is, as they smell AMAZING!).
If any of our products do come into
contact with eyes, or are ingested, please rinse and seek immediate medical
attention. Our contact details can be found at the bottom of the page or
contact us; if you need any info, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We conservatively estimate unmixed
(dilute) products to last around 6-12 months (dependent on product), but they
should last longer. If you experience any issues with your products,
please do not hesitate to contact us directly.
You don't but we suggest wearing
gloves due to the PH of some solutions, such as Shiny Mix which is
very acidic and can make your hands rough. You can grab your pair here.
Please contact us via our contact us
page if you would like a copy.