P&G Joins Unilever NV In Concentrated Detergent Offerings
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 11. 4.06
Wash out the old, wring in the new…praise of Tide, Gain, Era, and Dreft…for a new marketing trend may come to the US. Detergent makers some years ago start concentrating their European market detergent formulations; helping to meet mandated packaging waste reduction targets. Finally, there is movement to do the same in the US. Exiting soon, we hope, will be the business model where US consumers are urged with coupons to go for the biggest, most gawdawful colored bottles, covered with eye-jabbing labels, and containing a few smidgens of active ingredient diluted with much water and some sodium silicate. In this traditional model, also, a foaming agent that has nothing whatsoever to do with product efficacy is generally added, to fulfill an inappropriate 19th Century simile (“if you see suds, you've added enough soap”).
Collateral damage to be avoided by the new super concentrated and much greener detergents: wasted water, wasted shipping space, excess packaging; added petrochemical consumption and C02 emissions. (Please, ohh please, consider dropping the old-lady-on-the-bus scent and all trace of foaming agents).
Think this is happening because the US market is greening? Think again: “A bottle of the new concentrated detergent washes the same amount of clothing as a bottle of normal detergent but are about half of the size. The new bottles are made with up to 47 percent less plastic and have up to 45 percent less water than before, P&G said. The move comes more than two years after consumer packaged goods companies such as P&G began to feel pressure from higher raw materials costs, particularly for the plastic used in packaging”.
There was important help from our old friend Wal-Mart. Per the above-linked story: "This was more of a Wal-Mart mandate than a PG-led initiative, but if the changeover goes smoothly, PG, the retailer and consumer win," Deutsche Bank said in a note to its clients this week. Corroborating this point, Dow Jones Newswire reported this week “The move by P&G follows a decision earlier this year by Unilever NV (UN), which began selling All Small & Mighty, a concentrated bottle of All detergent, at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) earlier this year”.
All that sounds good on the surface, until you look at the very dubious side of the coin. Most people measure how much detergent to put in the water based on the size of the detergent cap, but these new bottles have the same size cap. Anybody who buys them ends up using the same amount per load as they did with the big, old bottles. The result is using three bottles to get the same number of loads washed as you previously did with one. These end up generating more waste than did the big bottles.
=== author's response follows ====
The blind, distracted, or uncoordinated ones among us can be helped through packaging design. Highly concentrated liquid products can, and often are, sold in bottles with internal dose or "aliquot" devices, as is commonly done all around the globe with pesticide concentrates. The user simply loosens the main cap, squeezes the bottle (direct pouring from big spout is blocked), and, in so doing, fills a small side-chamber with a exact "aliquot.". The chamber contents can be then poured out as a precisely set amount. I have seen prototype detergent bottles with this feature. The packaging material consumption is about the same or a little more.
Actually James, I've used the detergent shown in the article. The cap is much smaller and I did get the correct amount of loads washed with it. Now, I think it would be a good idea to sell the concentrated solution in a medium sized bottle with twice the number of washes. Then your total plastic-used-per-load-of-laundry is even further reduced.
I don't want to be a Negative Nellie here, but I really don't think that P&G deserve space on Treehugger unless you dedicate at least a little of that space to a disclaimer.
P&G still do unnecessary testing on animals, and while the recent discussion here proves not everyone will be interested in this information - it looks like many would want to know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procter_&_Gamble
http://www.pandgkills.com/main.html
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No one is perfect and no corporation is flawless; and, subjectivity plays heavily into what seems acceptable and what does not in coroporate procedures. TreeHugger recognizes progress, which we think is exactly what P&G and Unilever has shown signs of on this matter, largely, it turns out, after having their hand(s) forced by Wal-Mart, another company with blemishes of its own.
So, Thank you Heidi for the insights and thanks also, curiously, to Wal-mart.
Just a note: anywhere there's a Target (or perhaps a K-Mart?), you can pick up ultra-concentrated detergent that isn't from an animal testing company. The brand is method. I still prefer my co-op, but method is still a relatively decent choice. I do love that P&G and Unilever are offering these choices, though!
I have also been using method detergent in the smaller bottles-- they have been around for months, whereas I've only recently seen the smaller bottle versions of p&g brands and the unilever brands a couple of weeks ago. Seems like they're trying to copy method products.
Yes the caps are much smaller, and the bottles are much easier to handle, and you need so little detergent to do a whole load of laundry. There is also a little label on the packaging on the Unilever All bottle that they are also only using environmentally friendly biodegradable surfactants. I feel like it's so much easier to do laundry, I'm washing more often....
Hopefully, people will stop buying the big bottle stuff and it will make a difference in the world.
Sorry to further pop the bubble but....Americans think more is always better, and I am sure people will still be using more than the recommended dose, whatever the packaging.
Besides I doubt this product is benign,I'm assuming it's the usual mix of toxic crap that polluted plenty during it's fabrication and will pollute waterways after use. The real positive of this story is Americans being forced to clean up a little because of progressive Euro laws.
Am I the only one here who doesn't see the benefit of replacing a bunch of big bottles with a bunch of small bottles? I might be more impressed if the companies were replacing the big bottles of standard strength with same-sized bottles of concentrated detergent. But then, I guess people just might not notice.
A step at a time! Yes, it would be better if they offered bigger bottles with the concentrate. Best of all would be if you could go somewhere and have your bottle refilled. I hope that will happem some day.
Meanwhile, going to smaller bottles is a step in the right direction. I'll applaud any company making progress!
What about those Laundry Balls (or Eco Balls as they're called here in the UK)? They would seem to be the most eco-friendly washing solution. They use no detergent and can be re-used many times, supposedly working out much cheaper than convential detergent. Are they effective or a gimmick?
Here's two verdicts
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8125-2249806_2,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4969324.stm
Adam Lowry here, founder of method. We launched triple concentrated detergent in August 2004 (with the aforementioned "aliquot" squeeze cap). I appreciate those of you who recognize our leadership toward a better place environmentally in laundry detergent. Thanks!! It's a dirty little secret that we as consumers have been encouraged by big caps and even bigger bottles to overuse laundry detergent for decades. That's not only bad for our environment, but bad for our washing machines and our wallets. It's true WalMart got wind of it and now everybody's going concentrated. I'm not sure I like how credit is being taken for environmental benefits that weren't original ideas, but hey, at least the whole laundry industry is moving to a better place. Concentrates are a good thing, so use them, but don't overuse them, a little is all you need. Just keep in mind the innovator when you're shopping for them! :)
Yes it's great that P&G made improvements in plastic consumption. But why not take it a step further? Promote correct soap ratio measurments and eco friendly materials. I recently gave up P&G period and switched to Shaklee after reading about programs such as LEED and Climate Neutral. I love Shaklee's Get Clean laundry soap. You can get 14lbs of powder soap that will do 244 loads!
I just bought a bottle of the "Small and Mighty" detergent that's free of perfumes and free of dyes. The cap does indicate how much detergent you should be pouring in due to the concentrated formula so it mitigates the fact that consumers will continue to use the same amount of detergent as they did before.
Also, the bottle claims that all of the detergent surfactants are biodegradable and the bottle has 25% or more post-consumer recycled plastic.
I'm not entirely convinced about this new move, but I think it should be applauded.
What they failed to mentioned is that the cap of the new concentrated detergents are not much smaller than the regular liquid detergents we used. People will be easily adding much too much detergent to their laundry just due to habit.
So why didn't they make the caps as small as the amount needed for a load of wash? I can think of a few reasons they are purposely tricking us. And they all mean more money $$$ to the manufacturer.