A study released today by Clean Water Action, the national environmental organization, concludes that a nationwide conversion to concentrated liquid laundry detergents would result in numerous environmental benefits including significant reductions in packaging, energy use, pollution and post-consumer waste. Inc. According to the study, Americans purchase more than a half-billion containers of liquid detergent a year and wash more than 20 billion loads of clothes. It also will encourage manufacturers to expand their commitment to these environmentally sound concentrated products. Concentrated liquid laundry detergents are sold in formulations of varying concentration. While packaged in different sized bottles, these concentrations wash the same number of laundry loads.
Many consumers mistakenly believe that the bigger packages wash more clothes.
Considerable pollution and hazardous waste is associated with the production of the plastics used to make containers. Using concentrates reduces the amount of plastic packaging required. Additionally, this scenario would save 7,400,000 gasoline gallons each year due to lower energy use for plastic production and transportation. Likewise, shifting toward more concentrated products is one of the most effective methods of source reduction. Even though an industry-wide switch to more concentrated liquid laundry detergents would yield environmental benefits, erosion of progress is possible, Dr. Cole points out.