How green are Meguiar's products?

[William_F]

As I have been looking around at various sites for supplies, I have seen that some of them sell lines of products that are being touted as being very green/eco friendly. Of course, I don't really know the forumulation for these products, so I have no way of knowing just how friendly they really are.

However, that got me wondering about Meg's products. I love using them and the support here on MOL is so awesome I would be hard pressed to switch anyway, but am curious as to how green Meg's products are.

Where can I find this sort of information?

I am comparing this specifially to the line sold by Detail King, although I have also seen a few others out there that don't stand out in my mind.

[Zuke]

Re: How green are Meguiar's products?

More should chime in but here is the MSDS for all Meguiar's products.

http://www.meguiars.com/msds/index.cfm

[Michael Stoops]

Re: How green are Meguair's products?

While all of Meguiar's car wash soaps are biodegradable, none of our other products are currently being marketed specifically as green/eco friendly.

We have regularly altered formulations to stay in keeping with ever changing regulations concerning VOC emissions, etc. In some cases we have been able to successfully alter the formulation of a given product without compromising it's effectiveness, ease of use, etc, but in others (M16 Professional Paste Wax comes to mind) we could not alter formulation without negatively impacting the product. That is something we refuse to do, so rather than produce a compromised product we cease production of it.

[Mike Pennington]

Re: How green are Meguiar's products?

In additon to what Mike said...

The word "green" gets used in many different ways, and there are no current regulations that outline what makes a "green" car care product.

Keep in mind, what would be "green" to be considered green?

- The product / chemical itself (liquid, paste, etc)
- Bottle
- Label
- Ink used on the label
- Cap
- Seal
- Internal parts of the pump in the cap if it is a spray product

All those would factor into is it "green"...


Here is another angle....A detailer can be super eco-friendly by capturing his water and not letting it run into the storm drains / ocean. While the chemicals used may be "green", what is running off the car may not be ??

[AndrewR/T]

Re: How green are Meguiar's products?

You can always be green and recycle your empty QD/QW bottles, ect as well.

[mb911]

Re: How green are Meguiar's products?

Certainly considering I go months without doing a traditional wash using UQD, makes the product a bit green.

[black240sx]

Re: How green are Meguiar's products?

If you take good care of your car, you can avoid the environmental impact of having it repainted or replaced prematurely.

It's the people NOT using products like #16 that should be targeted.

[Jossy92]

Re: How green are Meguiar's products?

...I don't really know the forumulation....
..Where can I find this sort of information?

I believe that most formulations are trade secret. So, nothing to compare execpt market buzz words?

I am not sure but thought green is a mostly undefined relative term. I thought it was a political term. (gasp! politics on megs?)

-Megs is greener than Bovine emissions.
-Greener than a hybrid. (They take more energy to manufacture than they save in fuel. Takes 25+ years to break even fuel wise. Replace the batteries every 5 years.)
-Greener than the California power grid will be when plug-ins arrive.

Want to talk about polluters? Amish.......... cattle.

[William_F]

Re: How green are Meguiar's products?

While all of Meguiar's car wash soaps are biodegradable, none of our other products are currently being marketed specifically as green/eco friendly.

Would a comparison of MSDS be fair point of comparison?

The word "green" gets used in many different ways, and there are no current regulations that outline what makes a "green" car care product.

Keep in mind, what would be "green" to be considered green?

- The product / chemical itself (liquid, paste, etc)
- Bottle
- Label
- Ink used on the label
- Cap
- Seal
- Internal parts of the pump in the cap if it is a spray product

All those would factor into is it "green"...

That is a very valid observation. I had given that some thought and realized that's it's tough to be 100% green in everything we do. Even the most eco friendly cars on the road still use components that might not be green (tires, oil etc).

I am primarily concerned at this point with the chemicals themselves. I know that something as simple as recycling the containters whenever possible would add a green element to the process as compared to simply tossing the empty bottle in the trash.

Here is another angle....A detailer can be super eco-friendly by capturing his water and not letting it run into the storm drains / ocean. While the chemicals used may be "green", what is running off the car may not be ??

Another valid point I have considered as well. I realized that even if a company were to have a degreaser that is as safe as clean water for the environment, the crud that accumualtes in the engine compartment, wheel wells and other places would still not be 100% clean when it was washed off and so the process itself isn't 100% clean even though the product used to complete the process could be.

Thanks for the input. I am not a tree hugger by any strectch, but my wife is just a notch or two below that. She loves the fact that the Meg's products we're using keep the cars looking like new, but she asked me about this the other day.

In my mind, since the products I use most never touch the ground and aren't propelled by aerosols, I don't see much of an issue but was very curious as to what people had to say on the topic.