Concentrating on the environment

The Great Outdoors is our playground. The woods, the open roads, the gravel paths. They all contribute to our daily dose of stoke and are a constant source of inspiration when it comes to designing our products.

Naturally, this means that respecting, but also preserving those is important to us, and something we always consider when expanding our range. Aside from using better, more environmentally friendly ingredients or recyclable packaging, we also think of the way and the rate at which our customers use our products.

With this in mind, we wanted to highlight our Cleaner Concentrate offering by catching up with product designer Andrew over a quick Q&A. Hopefully this will answer a few of the questions you guys have been sending over recently!

Why make a concentrate version of the Nano Cleaner?

Re-using is even better for the environment than recycling and that's why we decided to develop a concentrate of our award-winning cleaner, the Nano Tech Bike Cleaner. The idea behind it was to save chucking your old bottle and trigger of Bike Cleaner and encourage customers to re-fill with the Bike Cleaner Concentrate.

Each 1L Concentrate bottle makes 4 litres of ready-to-use Nano Tech Bike Cleaner. We've now expanded the Concentrate offering in different sizes: 500ml, 1L and 5L top-ups. So next time you run out of bike cleaner, don't throw your old bottle, save it, buy a top-up and help save the planet!

How much plastic is saved vs. just re-purchasing Nano Cleaner?

Buying a 1L concentrate makes 4 x 1L bottles of ready-to-use Cleaner, equating to using 75% less plastic packaging.

With regards to shipping, you're using 75% less CO2 shipping your bottle around the world.

There’s also a great cost saving for the user! 1L concentrate = £19.99 equating to £5 per litre.

In comparison 1L ready-to-use = £10.99 so it's highly cost effective!

Is it biodegradable?

Just like our ready-to-use Bike Cleaner, the Concentrate version is also biodegradable, meaning you can clean away with a guilt-free conscience.

Can you use it in its concentrated form for hard-to-budge grime?

Yes you can! The Bike Cleaner concentrate can also be used as a powerful degreaser in its concentrate form and it really works like a charm in Muc-Off’s X-3 Dirty Chain Machine or hard-to-budge grime. How’s that for multi-use?

If you are using Bike Cleaner Concentrate as a degreaser, simply apply directly to drive chain area directly from the pouch. Leave for approximately 30 seconds before agitating area with a brush and then rinsing with fresh water.

For the deepest clean on the dirtiest chains we also have our Bio Drivetrain Cleaner - the ultimate drivetrain cleaning solution that can be sprayed directly on your chain rings, cassette and derailleurs to clean and degrease within seconds. The results still amaze me every time you use it! We can guarantee a gleaming drivetrain time and time again!

Are there plans to make Concentrate versions of any other products?

We have a few developments in the pipeline and have tested several products in Concentrate and other forms but it's always challenging getting the same cleaning performance and overcoming packaging challenges, but we always have something exciting on the go so watch this space!

What other environmental efforts have you made / are you working on with regards to Muc-Off products?

Here at Muc-Off, we take our responsibility to the environment and our planet very seriously. We’re always working on more ways to become as ecologically sound as possible, whilst still delivering the best possible product for our customers.

In recent months we have taken the following steps to ensure we stay continually committed to this:

We reformulated our hugely popular MO-94 spray to be biodegradable, making sure it’s not just your bike that stays protected.
We removed PTFEs (Polytetrafluoroethylene) from all our products and formulas. PTFEs can cause serious harm to wildlife when they drain into water sources, so developing alternatives to this was a big focus for Muc-Off, and we’re delighted to say our whole range is now PTFE free!
We continue to push awareness around our Nano Cleaner re-fill and Concentrate programme, encouraging users to reuse their plastic bottles from home when it comes to cleaning their bike with the best brand out there!
All our bags that we give away at events are now paper not plastic, making recycling way easier when you’re at home.
Our new Drivetrain cleaner bottles are being retooled to remove their plastic over-sleeve. A small change, but an important one.
All of our customer orders on our website now ship with shredded cardboard made from old shipping cartons, instead of bubble wrap, for protection.