CINCINNATI, OH — Procter & Gamble will start selling concentrated versions of powder laundry detergent in the United States and Canada in February next year.
The compacted versions of Tide, Gain, Cheer, Dreft and Ivory Snow will come in smaller cartons containing 33 percent less powder by volume and are part of the company's Future Friendly program.
By converting all of the powder detergent brands to compact formulas, Procter & Gamble estimates the new versions will save up to 4 million gigajoules of energy a year. That is, so long as customers use the recommended doses.
Much of P&G's Future Friendly efforts have been centered on how to lower the impacts of the customer use phase of products, since their research shows that the use of detergent accounts for almost 80 percent of the energy needed to wash clothes.
P&G previously developed concentrated versions of liquid laundry detergent as well as detergents that work well in colder water to help reduce the overall resources that go into products and the amount of energy needed to do laundry.
The company did not announce how concentrated the new powder detergent is compared to the old versions. On the liquid laundry side, 2x and 3x concentrated versions have become the norm for companies, especially after Walmart made it a priority to only offer concentrated liquid detergents.
Method has taken the lead over all other brands with its 8x concentrated detergent that it introduced earlier this year.
Tide - CC license by Flickr user Barkdog
[Editor's note: This article was updated to include the specific percentage that the powders were compacted by.]