I walked away with a bag full of soaps, house cleaners, and a pump bottle of laundry detergent, which didn't make much of an impression until I started using it last week, at which point I realized how truly smart both the product and packaging are. It's super-concentrated, so a single small 20-ounce bottle is good for 50 loads. It smells good—I'm particularly partial to peony blossom. And it's really easy to use. My previous laundry detergent always dripped on the floor whenever I poured it into the cup and made a gooey mess on the top of my washing machine. This one requires just a four pumps for a normal load, and the pump mechanism prevents drips.

Better still is the formula and packaging's green cred: It's got a low carbon footprint, 35% less than the typical concentrated detergent. The compact package takes 35% less energy to make and ship, and uses 36% less plastic. A whopping 95% of the formula comes from renewable plant-based ingredients.

If you're curious how they concentrate the product so intensely, their website offers a layman's explanation that goes like this: "Conventional laundry detergents have surfactants suspended in H20. Ours flips that on its head—surfactants outside, H20 inside, so a little is all you need."

Even smarter—they recently introduced a refill pouch that's good for 85 loads, so you can refill your little bottle to your heart's content.

And, speaking of Method, you have until the end of today, August 9th, to vote for your favorite way to recycle/upcycle a Method bottle; more info about the Dwell contest here.