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In the coming years, the company will toss out all liquid and tablet formats, first launching gel versions of its Bold, Daz and Fairy products this summer. In October P&G rolled out its Ariel Excel Gel, which requires 40 percent less water during manufacturing and comes in 14 percent less packaging than compact liquids.
All of the company's detergents will eventually be available only in concentrated and compact versions, and the only single-dose version will be liquitabs.
The U.K. has more laundry formats than any other market. For example, Ariel is available as a powder, liquid, tablet, liquitab and gel. Most other brands are available in at least three versions.
Along with reducing the amount of water needed to be produced, concentrated detergent results in a range of savings: using less packaging, requiring less space in shipments and taking up less space on store shelves or in storage.
The use of concentrated detergent got a boost in the U.S. in late 2007 when Wal-Mart declared it would only sell concentrated liquid detergent.
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Washing at lower temperature
In the Netherlands and some other European countries Proctor & Gamble introduced a new Ariel. It works good at low temperature. So wash on 30 degrees Celcius and you can save a lot of energy.
http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblog/?p=1476
The start of the campaign was with one of our educational products: Energy Saving Happy Families card game.
http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblog/?p=2472
It's Not The Size that Matters
Kudos to any manufacturer who is willing to reduce packaging size without compromising product size, weight, volume, etc. Too often in these tough economic times, manufacturers are sticking with large, wasteful packaging, while reducing the amount of product inside. You can see this in grocery stores, for example, in such staples as cereal, soup, soap, detergents, shampoos, etc.
Product packaging is very wasteful in terms of raw materials used (paperboard, plastic, etc.), transport costs (as volume is directly proportional to freight costs), total carbon footprint and in other areas (the need for larger stores) --and in damaging one's reputation in branding themselves as "environmentally conscious" and "socially responsible"..
On the other hand is the concern over perceived value by the buyer. Only when most items on store shelves have achieved the same goal of packaging reduction -- and consumers become more label-conscious (able to understand cost per oz. or cost per ml)-- smaller packaging will become the norm.
This will have to be done by mandates set by large retailers, such as Walmart and Target, in order to get the ball rolling – and not by government mandates.
An educated consumer is the key to the green movement.
Here's to a greener tomorrow--today.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for anyone interested in going green. The site's handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.