A collection of thoughts, interesting ideas, and trends

Monday, August 2, 2010

Green cleaning product sold in cartridges, diluted at home with tap water

What a great idea - and they are cdn too!

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Green cleaning product sold in cartridges, diluted at home with tap water



Forward-thinking manufacturers are working to decrease the amount of packaging used for their products. Some offer concentrated formulas, others sell refills in bags instead of containers. Now, a Canadian startup has come up with an innovative solution we hadn't yet spotted: refill cartridges that consumers dilute at home, with tap water.



Developed by Planet People, the iQ line of household cleaning products features small cartridges of plant-based concentrate. Consumers fill a spray bottle with ordinary tap water and pop in a cartridge. The coloured concentrate visibly mixes with the water, and voila: a full bottle of cleaner. iQ comes in four varieties: glass, bathroom, floor and all-purpose cleaner. All made with non-toxic and environmentally sustainable ingredients.



Besides reducing packaging and plastic waste, the system obviously cuts down on transportation, reducing fuel consumption and vehicle emissions. And—appealing to people's wallets as much as their conscience—iQ passes on packaging and transportation savings to its customers. iQ starter kits, which include a spray bottle full of solution and a first refill cartridge, retail for approximately CAD 6.49, while cartridges are approximately CAD 2.79. The products are currently available from natural food stores in Canada, and from Hannaford and Sweetbay in the US. If we weren't so busy reporting on new business ideas, we'd snap up international distribution rights ourselves ;-)



Website: www.iqclean.com

Contact: www.iqclean.com/contact_us.php





Justin

Sent from my iPhone

Site aggregates offers from 'deal a day' providers

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Site aggregates offers from 'deal a day' providers



Bargain-minded consumers have no shortage of "deal a day" sites to choose from—the challenge now is staying abreast of them all. That means it's time for a little aggregation, which is just what Dealradar offers.



Launched in May, Chicago-based Dealradar is a free service that finds and reports on unique daily-deal offers from sites like Groupon and LivingSocial in more than 60 cities across the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. Drawing from more than 80 daily deal sites, Dealradar follows, indexes and classifies local deals and then delivers them to consumers in an aggregated manner, clearly organized by the type of product or service offered. Consumers can subscribe to Dealradar via email, Twitter, Facebook or RSS; a mobile app is also available. Either way, by using the service consumers stand to save the time it would take to peruse 15 or more individual daily e-mails to see every local offer, Dealradar says. When they find an offer they like, users can simply click on it to be directed to the site offering the deal; if they make a purchase, the partner site involved then shares an unspecified portion of those proceeds with Dealradar.



With benefits not just for consumers but also for deal sites and the advertisers they represent, Dealradar promises to offer one of those all-too-rare win-win-wins. Coming soon, the company says, are expanded options for advertisers and partners; new cities are continually being added as well. Retailers, service providers and deal-site operators: one to get involved in! All others: one to emulate in your part of the deal-hungry world...? (Related: Online retailers install widget to enable group buyingShoppers team up for better deals.)



Website: www.dealradar.com

Contact: www.dealradar.com/contact_us



Spotted by Chicago Sun-Times via Jim Stewart