Is Method Sustainable or is it Greenwashing?
Welcome to my "Sustainable or Greenwashing" series where I'm sharing if brands and products are actually what they say they are.
Is Method sustainable or is it greenwashing? 🧴
Method is the pretty bottle on the shelf — the one that looks like the eco option before you even read the label. Founded in 2000 by two roommates, Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan, and now owned by SC Johnson, Method built its name on "plant-based" and "naturally derived" cleaning products in bottles made from recycled plastic. For years, the label said "non-toxic." Then a lawsuit made them stop saying it.
Here is what happened. In 2016, a class action was filed arguing that Method's "non-toxic" and "natural" labels violated consumer protection laws — because the products contained synthetic ingredients, some of which can irritate skin or harm the environment. The ingredients named in the case included tocopheryl acetate and propylene glycol, plus preservatives like methylisothiazolinone and phenoxyethanol. The argument was simple: you cannot call a product natural when a good chunk of what is in it is synthetic.
In 2021, SC Johnson settled the case for $2.25 million, without admitting wrongdoing. Anyone in the US who had bought the covered Method products between May 2016 and May 2021 could claim up to $10 per household. And — this is the part that matters most — Method agreed to stop using the word "non-toxic" to describe the brand and its products. The word is gone from the labels now. The company shifted to more specific language, like "made without parabens or phthalates."
That settlement tells you something important about the words on cleaning labels: "natural," "plant-based," and "non-toxic" have no legal definition on a cleaning product. A bottle can hold synthetic preservatives, ethoxylated surfactants, and fragrance compounds the company never discloses — and still print "natural" on the front, legally. There is no federal rule stopping it.
So what is actually in the bottle? It depends on which one you pick, and that split is the honest heart of this post. Method's fragrance-free and Free + Clear options contain fewer concerning ingredients than the scented ones — that is real, and it is the better choice if you buy Method. But even the Free + Clear products include preservatives and synthetic components. An independent label audit in April 2026 found methylisothiazolinone — named "Allergen of the Year" by the American Contact Dermatitis Society back in 2013 — on current Method panels, including products sold as Free & Clear. The fragrance in the scented lines is a blend the company does not fully disclose, so you cannot assess what is in it at all.
And on the certifications front, the file is thin. Method is a B Corp, which is genuinely good. But it holds no EPA Safer Choice certification — unlike Blueland and Seventh Generation, which do. Its ingredient transparency is partial: you can read the ingredient list, but the fragrance compounds stay hidden, and there is no third-party safety certification backing the "clean" positioning.
To be fair, I will give them this: the bottles really are made from recycled plastic, the products really are free of parabens and phthalates, and the settlement did change the marketing — Method is more careful with its words now than it was in 2016. Compared to a conventional cleaner full of chlorine bleach and phosphates, Method is the gentler option. The question in this series is never "is it better than the worst thing on the shelf." It is "does the label tell the truth."
So is Method sustainable or is it greenwashing?
I'm going to say 50/50. The recycled bottles are real, the parabens and phthalates are really absent, and the Free + Clear line is a genuinely better pick inside the brand. But a company that had to be sued out of the word "non-toxic" — and still puts a known allergen in products sold as Free & Clear — does not get a clean bill from me. The label got more honest after the lawsuit. It still is not the whole story.
If you use Method, grab the Free + Clear version and skip the scented ones — that is the best version of this brand. And if you want to see what cleaning looks like when the ingredient list is short enough to actually read, my Dropps, ECOS, and Molly's Suds breakdowns are on the hub. What do you think — is Method sustainable, or is it greenwashing? Let me know, and if there is another brand you want me to cover, send it my way!
I have many more deep dives on the Sustainable or Greenwashing hub — stick around for all things mind, body, and planet! 🌎
XOXO,
Krys
