Blitz: The greener, cleaner, cleaner since 1912.

Back in 1912, the country was revving for the new Industrial revolution, and many peddlers were using ammonia, coal tar cleaners, kerosene, and petroleum distillates. Back then, these chemicals were considered miracle cleaners, but already pollution was rampant and people were getting sick from run-off into waterways.

In those days, one brass cleaner came in a tin can and used what we consider today poisonous chemicals. Blitz management, back in 1912, came up with a novel idea: The Polish is in the Cloth. In one easy to use cotton flannel cloth, the founder of the company used non-toxic, mild ingredients and embedded them into the cloth and packaged it for a small amount of coinage. In today's language we would say that Blitz created a greener, cleaner, cleaning product.

The item struck the frugal shoppers of the day, and caught the eye of the U.S. Military. Thus, the Blitz cloth was used to "blitz" metals during WWI, WWII, the Korean conflict, the Vietnam conflict, and beyond. We're proud to have worked side by side with American patriots, and our historic product has been on current display at the Smithsonian Institute for some time.

In more recent times, Blitz determined to differentiate ourselves from our jewelry cleaning competitors by eliminating all ammonia from our products, and all acidified thiourea (a known carcinogen as declared by the state of California). Our formulations use food grade ingredients, and the mildest agents we can find.

Before green was keen, we were working to use recyclable packaging. Instead of polystyrene jars, we transitioned to PETE in 1996. This is the same plastic used in 2-liter soft drink and drinking water bottles. It's considered a "cleaner plastic".

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE) is transparent, plastic that provides excellent gas and moisture barrier properties. Even better, it doesn't crack when it gets cold, during shipping. (PETE is used as the abbreviation, because "PET" is a brand-name).

We utilize recyclable jars and closures for our jewelry cleaner, and the same for any liquid bottles. Most of these components are made of recyclable plastic and stamped recyclable.

Our packaging since at least the 1940's was made of recyclable paper board. Today, we use recycled paper stocks. Our corrugation shipping containers contain fibers that have been recycled. Blitz believes that's the cleaner way to transport goods.

We watch trends in Europe and from around the world, and realize that minimal packaging keeps landfills from filling up. We've switched to lighter weight paper-stock for our packaging, and in many cases when our clients allow it, we use smaller designer cartons. Stock items also use minimal packaging, which include only a small paper insert for instructions.

Our Silver Shine™ Instant Silver Cleaner ships as a kit which not only contains mild ingredients compared to the toxic chemicals some of our competitors use, but is made of recyclable plastic, paper, and is light weight to reduce shipping costs and thus saves precious transportation fuel. In 1996, we created this unique, and as yet un-copied, method to clean silver. It was immediately embraced by environmentally conscious corporations such as J C Penney's and Macy's.

In the last few years, we've offered jewelry cleaner concentrate packets to our many of our clients, and you can also purchase these online. Not only does this lighter weight save money, but it saves our clients up to $15 per box in shipping costs depending on the location and distance from our distribution points.

We are a socially conscious company, and therefore we don't test our cleaning products on animals. Our polishing and cleaning cloths are 100% bio-renewable, cotton flannel. They are made with water-based ingredients which reduce the carbon footprint, since we don't use any V.O.C.'s (volatile organic compounds). Even the printing inks we use to make customized logos consist of water-based ink. Currently we are experimenting with applications that use corn-based polymers (PLA). All this lowers our carbon emissions, and will help us to continue to do a better, cleaner job in the future.

For generations, we've offered cleaners in concentrated forms so that even then our customers could save money. We understand with the price of transportation stratospheric, it's more important than ever to have these choices.

Our finished cloth products and liquid cleaner products are all manufactured in America's Heartland: Southern Indiana. This is not only a centrally located distribution center, but exhibits our attempt to be 'locavore', that is, utilizing agents and economies that do not have a long transportation cycles and minimizes fuel consumption. While machinery and technology has its place, it can also drive up costs to you. Many of our items are hand cut, sewn, filled, and assembled by workers in our local community.

One more fact about our cotton flannel polishing cloths: They last a long time. We often have consumers call and tell us they have cloths not only 10 years old, but have found WWII era cloths in their attic which still work for them. That makes us proud, and shows that we were 'life-cycle conscious' generations ago. A few quick strokes of the cloth on the metal, and a small amount of buffing will make your jewelry or musical instruments shine. In addition, there are special waxes, lotions, and ingredients that prevent silver from retarnishing.

This is why we often use the term "cleans, shines, and protects".

Our electric accessory cleaning appliances are UL and CE certified.

To summarize: Blitz has for generations used the mildest, non-toxic ingredients in our cleaners and we strive to do better each year. We offer lower transportation cost choices. We minimize packaging unless clients ask us otherwise. We work hard to lower Blitz' carbon footprint. We don't test on animals. We use bio-renewable resources such as corn-based citric acid, and cotton flannel. We don't use V.O.C.'s. We don't use ammonia. We don't use acidified thiourea in our silver cleaner. We use recyclable plastic components. We offer our most popular products in concentrate format. Our paper packaging and shipping cartons have a high component of recycled fiber. We recycle pallets. We work hard to be 'locovore' compatible, and life-cycle conscious.

The next time you need a metal cleaned, think of the greener, cleaner, cleaner from the Innovators: Blitz Since 1912.