Wal-Mart to Sell Only Concentrated Laundry Detergent Category by 2008
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA 
on 10. 1.07
Photo credit: crawfishpie
So what was Wal-Mart's big ol' Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) commitment? Well kids, CEO H. Lee Scott's gang has pledged to sell only concentrated laundry detergent in all of its U.S. stores by early May 2008. More than that, the company is going to "be a catalyst for the transformation of the entire liquid laundry detergent category across the retail industry and save vast amounts of natural resources," according to a press release. (We have no idea what that means, but it sure sounds fancy.)
"People expect businesses to step up and work together to help solve the big challenges facing the world," Scott told the audience at CGI's opening plenary session. "What we have done is work with suppliers to take water—one of our most precious natural resources—out of the liquid laundry detergent on our shelves. We simply don't want our customers to have to choose between a product they can afford and an environmentally friendly product."
Wal-Mart expects to save more than 400 million gallons of water, more than 95 million pounds of plastic resin, and more than 125 million pounds of cardboard. For water alone, this translates into 100 million individual showers, says the company.
And man, was Scott on a roll that day. He also thinks that Hamburger Helper should straighten its noodles so more noodles can be packed into a box, eliminating tons of waste and wasted fuel. The concept may sound good on paper, but we don't know if the American public is quite ready for that yet. ::PR Newswire
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I realize that Walmart is... Walmart.
But, as a starving married college student who can't afford to pay two or three times as much money for an "eco" detergent, I can't help but be thankful that someone is at least making an attempt towards "greener" products.
Even if it is Walmart.
they are only doing this because it will save them space in their trucks and on their shelves. They love to put a positive spin on it though
This is a baby step. Why don't they pledge to reduce fuel and electrical consumption 5% per year? This is just spin cycle stuff.
The question is will it have perfume in it? Fragrances are made with toxins and these toxins are associated with creating respiratory problems.
It WILL save fuel, the less weight in water shipped directly translates to fuel saved.
Besides, it saves plastic, and what do you think plastic is made from? OIL!
Well, atleast they are doing something, and Walmart is big enough that they can drag other companies with it. Maybe Target will want to one-up Walmart?
I think this is a small step too, with a long way to go to get anything close to 'green' status. Wal-Mart has a long way to go to get on the green bandwagon with both feet. How about biodegradable shopping bags, like Tesco has? Offering canvas shopping bags? Starting to build zero-carbon stores? Wal-Mart's PR is such a shambles and they make so much money, they can afford to lose a tiny amount of profit with more eco-friendly packaging and products.
Having worked for this monster many years ago while in college, I can tell you from personal experience that the ONLY reason you are even hearing about this is PR. If, next week, there was a new "Everything made of Chocolate" movement, (with the accompanying movie by Al Gore), then Wal-Mart would be singing Chocolate songs from the rooftops in order to boost sales.
As Vince said, it will save space on their trucks.. so they can then fill that space with other sellable items (probably items which have weight, thus negating the savings of fuel).
Best plan is to boycott Wal-Mart altogether, no matter what their PR machine says, until as Wannabe mentions, they are TRUE green, not SPIN green.
Cheers,
Tomtom
I think we should applaud Walmart's efforts. It's a step in the right direction from a huge company with a long way yet to go to get on the right path.
regardless of what their intention is, it will save energy and water. It also seems unfair to ask them to do everything at once. They've also pledged to be a zero waste by 2025 through recycling, reuse and reduction of packaging materials. Because they're so huge, that's a real impact. More of an impact than if Whole Foods eliminated packaging, simply because of the number of people who shop there. Whether a big box store could ever be green? Well, that's another issue. I don't have any love for Wal Mart, but it's more than many other retailers are doing.
Walmart can do all they want locally to improve their waste, but until they stop buying 80% of their products from China with next to no environmental regulations they aren't improving much.
I'd like to see Walmart make all of their suppliers in China meet U.S. environmental regulations. Then well see how cheap their products are!!!
We could restructure our tax system to take embedded taxes out of our domestic products then our products would be cheaper and competitive, Walmart could stock from in-country producers and then there would be savings on shipping and fuel ( both financial and environmental savings). FAIRTAX!
What WalMart isn't telling you is that the household chemicals industry is pushing them into this "change." It is being led by P&G, which has already begun to downsize their products by selling concentrates only. The other major detergent brands will be close behind.
Like all things WalMart, the retail giant is using something that they would have been forced to do anyway as a marketing pitch to green themselves.
WalMart is king at manipulating perception. In this case, they're sticking to their playbook.
As far as paying an arm and a leg for "Eco" cleaners.....that's not always the case. My local mass retailer sells an All Natural laundry detergent for the same price (and size) as WalMart charges for Tide.
Walmart isn't the best company and they have a lot of faults but to say this is the only thing they are doing is not telling the entire story.
Some of the other things they are doing include:
Each new Walmart store uses natural lighting during the day.
They have motion sensitive lighting in their frozen goods sections and that lighting is provided by mercury-free LED lights.
They have committed to increasing recycling of plastic bags
They have plans to sell 100 Million CFL bulbs this year at prices their customer base can afford.
They are seeking a PPA solar agreement to place 30,000 Megawatts worth of clean electricity generation on their stores and distribution centers.
In my area, they carry one of the largest natural and organic food selections, on par with the local natural foods store.
They are replacing all of their coffee with fair trade coffee.
They are working with shrimp farmers in Thailand for Mango grove preservation.
And that is the start. And I am sure they are doing it for profits and bottomline over concern for the environment but still it is happening. If every large retailer took these same actions, we would see a definite impact.
I agree - boycott Walmart!
This certainly won't save the consumer money, and obviously won't help the environment. I'd say laundry detergents are a bigger problem than the fuel used to ship them.
No one has mentioned the fact that people already use too much detergent in their laundry. Concentrates will probably make this issue worse. No matter what WalMart does, there is still an army of uneducated shoppers out there. Change them and you can change WalMart.