Laundry Detergent based on renewable material
Environmental sustainability is important for our world and our future. That is why P&G has both short - and long-term sustainability goals to ensure we are maximizing the renewable content profile of all our products and their packaging. Our short-term goals include creating more technologies to replace petroleum-derived raw materials and to ensure traceability of key renewable resources like palm oil and palm kernel oil. Our biggest long-term goal is to use 100% renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging.
What exactly are renewable materials?
Simply put, a renewable materialis any material made by natural processes at a rate comparable to its rate of consumption. In other words, it is a natural resource that can be replenished as quickly as it is used. Although it is a good starting place to use more renewable materials, it is also important to ensure the supply of those materials is truly renewed. Therefore, it is our aim to both increase our use of renewable materialsand ensure we source our materials in a responsible, sustainable manner.
What steps have been taken to ensure sustainable sourcing of renewables?
We have already confirmed the traceability of our palm oil and palm kernel oil supply to our responsible supplier mills. We are continuing to work further back up the sourcing chain to ensure zero deforestation is linked to our sourcing of palm oil.
What renewable materials are used in P&G detergents?
In order to bring more renewable resources into our liquid detergent formulas, P&G has partnered with DuPontto repurpose agricultural waste (corn stover) into a bioethanol solvent, which replaces the petroleum-based solvents that are not renewable. This bioethanol material will be produced at DuPont’s new biorefinery in Nevada, the world’s largest bioethanol refinery, producing 30 million gallons per year with zeronet carbon emissions.
Most recently, Tide®purclean™ brought a new innovation to the detergent marketin the U.S. with a formula that is 75% bio-based—the first bio-based detergent with the cleaning power of Tide
75% of the active ingredients in Tide®purclean™come from biological, renewable sources, from agricultural, to marine, and even forestry sources. The more products we make with renewable ingredients, the lower our long-term impact on the earth’s resources.
What about renewable materials for packaging?
Tide detergent bottles are 100% recyclable and contain at least 25% post-consumer recycled plastic. This means when we make a bottle, 25% of the content comes from previously used plastic, and when the bottle is empty, you can recycle it! This use of recycled products contributes to the renewable economy, providingplastic for other uses. We support residential recycling through our membership in The Recycling Partnership (TRP) and this, in turn, will eventually enable us to increase our use of post-consumer recycled materialsin our packaging.We also strive to reduce our consumption of secondary packaging by minimizing the amount of materials necessary to package our products to ship and distribute them. We ensure our bulk packaging materials are also renewable and/or recyclable.
