BAY VILLAGE, Ohio -- Dan Musson and Dan Kubiak turned a lifelong love of creating things into a new business venture called DANSOAP, an all-natural, biodegradable, environmentally friendly laundry detergent that's kinder to Lake Erie than many national brands.
"The 'aha' moment was when I realized my laundry detergent drained into the storm sewer rather than the sanitary lines in my house -- the way it was set up in the 1960s," said Kubiak, an operations director. "All of this waste water ends up in Lake Erie, and this is where our children play and is the water we drink. That is when I called Dan, and we started working" to come up with something better.
Dan Musson, 35, of Lakewood, left, and childhood friend Dan Kubiak, 34, of Bay Village, have started an all-natural soap company called DANSOAP, which they make from scratch in Kubiak's garage.
"It is important to have clean clothes and clean drain water," he said. "Hence our slogan: 'Clean Laundry. Clean Planet.' It needs to be both."
Musson, a design specialist and historic preservation compliance officer, agreed. "Regular laundry detergents, even those that claim to be 'free and clear,' contain chemicals and compounds that have not only been proven to cause harm to humans, but also the environment," he said.
Examples include: petrochemicals, sulfates, parabens, "phthalates, which can act as an endocrine disruptor, especially in children, and phosphates, which when washed down the drain and into our lakes and rivers, encourage algae growth," he said. "Phosphates were one of the main contributors to the massive algae bloom in the western half of Lake Erie this past summer."
Procter & Gamble, the Cincinnati-based consumer products giant whose laundry products include Tide, Cheer, Era, Gain, Fab, Dreft and Downy, did not want to say anything about DANSOAP. "As a matter of policy, we decline to comment on matters regarding other companies and their business," P&G's media relations team said via email.
Best friends since fifth grade, Musson, 35, and Kubiak, 34, bonded as Eagle Scouts in Troop 153 in North Ridgeville. When other kids were playing video games, they were at one another's homes making candles or coming up with inventions.
"People called us 'the Dans,' and except for going to separate schools, we were rarely apart," Kubiak said. "We both moved away after college but found ourselves back in Cleveland raising families and picked up right where we left off as best friends."
Dan Kubiak, left, pours lye to a bucket of coconut oil as Dan Musson waits to churn the mixture that will become all-natural laundry soap for clothes.
Here's how the two make DANSOAP from scratch in Kubiak's garage:
1. Kubiak carefully pours liquid sodium hydroxide, or lye, into a plastic bucket full of coconut oil to begin the saponification process that turns the mixture into soap.
"Coconut oil is really good for laundry," Musson said, standing by with an enormous stick blender they made from a scrap metal disc and an electric drill.
2. Both liquids have been warmed to 85 or 90 degrees but start to turn opaque when Musson churns it. Kubiak adds a small beaker of lavender essential oil, which quickly permeates the air inside the garage. (DANSOAP also comes in unscented.)
"There are records of the Romans, Phoenicians and Egyptians making soap, and it's always been done the same way," Kubiak said.
3. About 12 hours later, the mixture will pop out of the bucket as a solid cylinder of soap, which they will slice into chunks and air dry.
4. They then feed the chunks into an industrial-grade vegetable shredder, which creates wispy soap flakes that look like grated coconut.
Dan Kubiak checks the soap flakes as they dry in homemade bins in his garage.
5. Because the soap is still too damp to package, they spread it out on drying racks inside a heated incubator they made out of sheets of foam insulation, a heater and a fan.
6. About a week later, they sift in sodium percarbonate and other ingredients, measure the soap into foil-lined kraft paper bags, pop in a plastic measuring scoop, and seal the bags.
"Paper bags are very low impact environmentally compared to a plastic jug," Kubiak said. He turns the bag over and points to the back. "Everything in here is on the EPA's list of low-concern ingredients," he said. "All of the ingredients are considered very environmentally friendly."
Once they figure out the perfect ratio, they hope to create citrus-scented DANSOAP with grapefruit, lemon and sweet orange essential oils in 2015.
Dan Musson releases warmed coconut oil into a plastic bucket to make all-natural laundry soap. Musson and best friend Dan Kubiak have started an all-natural soap company called DANSOAP.
Nearly all of their supplies come from local vendors, from the lye to the coconut oil to the cardboard boxes they use to ship out the packaged soap. That helps keep their production costs low, reduces their inventory, and ensures they can get more of whatever they need within hours.
The only two things they can't seem to find made locally are the blue 1-ounce scoops and the kraft paper bags that hold the finished powder.
DANSOAP's sales volume has tripled in October, and Kubiak said they are seeing growth of 10 percent to 15 percent every month since the company launched in August.
"We'd love to sell nationally," he said. "The laundry market is big. Everybody uses some sort of laundry soap. Our 10-year goal is to get half of 1 percent of U.S. laundry sales. That's about a $15 million business."
Paper bags of all-natural DANSOAP laundry detergent, made with all-natural ingredients provided by local vendors, is now sold in Cleveland-area stores.
Each $8.99 bag holds enough detergent to wash 32 loads, although both Dans admit to pouring in a little extra to account for spills. The CLE Clothing Co. shop on East Fourth Street also sells single-load packets of DANSOAP for $1.99.
Full-sized bags of DANSOAP are sold at: Costantino's Markets in Cleveland and University Circle, Mustard Seed Markets & Cafes in Akron and Solon, Nature's Bin in Lakewood, Native Cleveland in North Collinwood, Paisley Monkey in Lakewood, the Downtown Farmers Market, and Heinen's Fine Foods stores in Ohio and Illinois.
Tamara Racin, owner of Paisley Monkey, a boutique for babies and children's clothing and products, said she insisted on trying DANSOAP before agreeing to sell it in her shop. She enlisted friends and family to test it along with her, and ended up switching detergents.
"There's no way I would ever have put it on my shelf had I not tried it myself first," she said.
Chunks of milky-white unscented DANSOAP await drying and shredding into soap flakes on shelves in Dan Kubiak's Bay Village garage. The all-natural soap is biodegradable and environmentally-friendly.
"It's really, really great detergent," Racin said. "It's all natural and it's made locally, which is a really big bonus for me, because I try to get as many unique things as possible made in the U.S.
"This is even better, because it's made right here in Northeast Ohio. And it's really great to support local entrepreneurs."
For all their expertise making detergent, neither Dan is in charge of washing the clothes at his house, although both say they help their wives with the laundry. Musson has three children, ages 2 to 6, while Kubiak has five children, ages 4 months to 8 years old.
"I'll pitch in where needed, but when you have five kids, it's sort of 'all hands on deck' to get it all done," Kubiak said.