Tom Branna, Editorial Director11.01.21
It’s called New Horizons, but after the past 19 months, perhaps the Household and Commercial Products Association (HCPA) should rename its triannual event, New Beginnings. The meeting, held in September in Austin, TX, was the first industry event in the COVID era. It was truly a hybrid event, featuring pre-recorded and live presentations made to live and online audiences. But whether in-person or online, attendees heard how companies such as Procter & Gamble, Diversey and Clorox are grappling with issues such as packaging waste, consumer health and effective cleaning.
Ken McGuire, research fellow, P&G, detailed projects that highlight packaging sustainability goals for the world’s largest fast-moving consumer goods company.
“The world produces 70 kilo tons of plastic packaging every year,” noted McGuire. “P&G is committed to reducing our use of virgin petroleum resin. One of our goals is to find solutions to ensure that no P&G package finds it way to the ocean.”
In an effort to reuse resin while maintaining tight color specifications, P&G teamed up with PureCycle to develop a dissolution process to produce virgin plastic from recycled material. A production plant will come online in 2023. Another P&G initiative, dubbed Holy Grail, involves digital watermarks to facilitate efficient sorting at recycling centers. The program is an initiative of AIM (the European Brands Association) and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. The Alliance also includes nearly two dozen companies, including Henkel, Johnson & Johnson, Reckitt and Unilever.
Holy Grail 2.0 codes packaging surfaces with imperceptible codes (watermarks), the size of postage stamps, that carry information on the manufacturer, SKU, plastic type and composition, and end use (food v. non-food). All that information is decoded at the waste sorting facility to result in better, more accurate sorting streams and, ultimately, higher-quality recyclates. Finally, P&G’s EC30 project rethinks water-based formulations.
“Nearly everything we sell is a liquid, and shipping liquid is very expensive,” noted McGuire.
By taking water out of the formulation, EC30 reduces the carbon dioxide emission impact from manufacturing, chemistry and shipping by up to 50% v. traditional liquids, according to P&G. For example, EC30 toilet cleaner swatches are septic-tank safe. Consumers just drop the swatch in the bowl; wait for the swatch to dissolve and foam; give the bowl a brush to remove any solid stains and flush. A packet of 15 retails for $29. The laundry detergent swatches come in 30-count packs and retail for $29. The all-in-one promises to clean whites, colors and delicates, while keeping colors bright. The swatches are available in fragrance and fragrance-free variants. EC30 personal care offerings include shampoo (30 swatches, $29), conditioner (30 swatches, $29) body wash (30 swatches, $19), and hand wash (60 swatches, $19).
Bio-Augmented Cleaning
Ken Roach, technology fellow, Diversey, detailed the benefits of incorporating probiotics into industrial & institutional cleaning formulas. The result, he said, is superior results with significant savings of water and time. Compared to standard floor cleaner, bio-augmented floor cleaner requires 75% less time and 65% less water. Perhaps most importantly, a better clean can save lives. According to Roach, 50 million Americans get sick every year and thousands die every year, due to poor cleaning procedures. In fact, Roach said most illness can be attributed to human error.
Roach cautioned that bio-augmented cleaners cannot be used near food. Furthermore, these formulas still require traditional ingredients such as surfactants, builders and preservatives, along with bacterial spores. According to Roach, formulations may contain enzymes, but they’re not necessary as the spores will germinate and produce enzymes specific to the soil present. He pointed out that conventional cleaning components are necessary to deliver a result in a relatively short time.
“Bio-augmented formulas are not a panacea,” he noted. “But they do clean up what traditional cleaners miss.”
Roach called bacteria nature’s ultimate recyclers and noted that biodegradation is ultimately a bacterial process.
“If we can make the formulation mild enough for spores to survive, then we can get the benefits of bio-augmentation.”
The Consumer Experience
The consumer still wants unique experiences from brands, noted Cory Fites, associate design director, strategy and innovation, Clorox. But the pandemic has made the consumer landscape hyper-chaotic, filled with unknowns.
“With everything going on now, we are facing a fundamentally different consumer, a fundamentally different market, and changing from anything I’ve known before,” said Fites, who spent seven years at Procter & Gamble before joining Clorox. “These are unprecedented times in terms of what consumers are craving and what experiences they are after. There’s no game plan to deal with this.”
As a result, consumers have an open mind, are willing to change, and brands must have a start-up mentality to meet their needs, according to Fites. Five key trends are appearing on the market: DTC, user habits, subscriptions, advertising and sustainability. Regarding user habits, he noted that if the idea of a sustainable deodorant format was suggested five years ago, it would have been laughed off the table. Today, consumers are evolving past convenience-only options and considering their impact on their family and the world around them. As an example, Fites pointed to Old Spice deodorant variants that include plastic-free, aluminum-free options.
“Consumers are interested in refills, they’re interested in subscriptions; the new normal means nothing is normal and this is the time to really challenge the consumer,” he asserted. “They have no context of what’s normal. Put new products out there.”
He insisted consumers want engaging experiences to elevate their everyday. “They are looking for brands that take shopping from chore to ritual and experiences from ‘one-size-fits-all’ to OMG! They really know me!’”
The rise of subscriptions coincides with consumers realizing their time and energy are limited and they are putting their money behind lifestyle experiences aligned with similar attitudes and beliefs.
“(Consumers) are over the ‘built-for-everyone, designed-for-no-one’ approach to products and services purchased in the past and are now curating exactly what they want,” he observed.
Ken McGuire, research fellow, P&G, detailed projects that highlight packaging sustainability goals for the world’s largest fast-moving consumer goods company.
“The world produces 70 kilo tons of plastic packaging every year,” noted McGuire. “P&G is committed to reducing our use of virgin petroleum resin. One of our goals is to find solutions to ensure that no P&G package finds it way to the ocean.”
In an effort to reuse resin while maintaining tight color specifications, P&G teamed up with PureCycle to develop a dissolution process to produce virgin plastic from recycled material. A production plant will come online in 2023. Another P&G initiative, dubbed Holy Grail, involves digital watermarks to facilitate efficient sorting at recycling centers. The program is an initiative of AIM (the European Brands Association) and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. The Alliance also includes nearly two dozen companies, including Henkel, Johnson & Johnson, Reckitt and Unilever.
Holy Grail 2.0 codes packaging surfaces with imperceptible codes (watermarks), the size of postage stamps, that carry information on the manufacturer, SKU, plastic type and composition, and end use (food v. non-food). All that information is decoded at the waste sorting facility to result in better, more accurate sorting streams and, ultimately, higher-quality recyclates. Finally, P&G’s EC30 project rethinks water-based formulations.
“Nearly everything we sell is a liquid, and shipping liquid is very expensive,” noted McGuire.
By taking water out of the formulation, EC30 reduces the carbon dioxide emission impact from manufacturing, chemistry and shipping by up to 50% v. traditional liquids, according to P&G. For example, EC30 toilet cleaner swatches are septic-tank safe. Consumers just drop the swatch in the bowl; wait for the swatch to dissolve and foam; give the bowl a brush to remove any solid stains and flush. A packet of 15 retails for $29. The laundry detergent swatches come in 30-count packs and retail for $29. The all-in-one promises to clean whites, colors and delicates, while keeping colors bright. The swatches are available in fragrance and fragrance-free variants. EC30 personal care offerings include shampoo (30 swatches, $29), conditioner (30 swatches, $29) body wash (30 swatches, $19), and hand wash (60 swatches, $19).
Bio-Augmented Cleaning
Ken Roach, technology fellow, Diversey, detailed the benefits of incorporating probiotics into industrial & institutional cleaning formulas. The result, he said, is superior results with significant savings of water and time. Compared to standard floor cleaner, bio-augmented floor cleaner requires 75% less time and 65% less water. Perhaps most importantly, a better clean can save lives. According to Roach, 50 million Americans get sick every year and thousands die every year, due to poor cleaning procedures. In fact, Roach said most illness can be attributed to human error.
Roach cautioned that bio-augmented cleaners cannot be used near food. Furthermore, these formulas still require traditional ingredients such as surfactants, builders and preservatives, along with bacterial spores. According to Roach, formulations may contain enzymes, but they’re not necessary as the spores will germinate and produce enzymes specific to the soil present. He pointed out that conventional cleaning components are necessary to deliver a result in a relatively short time.
“Bio-augmented formulas are not a panacea,” he noted. “But they do clean up what traditional cleaners miss.”
Roach called bacteria nature’s ultimate recyclers and noted that biodegradation is ultimately a bacterial process.
“If we can make the formulation mild enough for spores to survive, then we can get the benefits of bio-augmentation.”
The Consumer Experience
The consumer still wants unique experiences from brands, noted Cory Fites, associate design director, strategy and innovation, Clorox. But the pandemic has made the consumer landscape hyper-chaotic, filled with unknowns.
“With everything going on now, we are facing a fundamentally different consumer, a fundamentally different market, and changing from anything I’ve known before,” said Fites, who spent seven years at Procter & Gamble before joining Clorox. “These are unprecedented times in terms of what consumers are craving and what experiences they are after. There’s no game plan to deal with this.”
As a result, consumers have an open mind, are willing to change, and brands must have a start-up mentality to meet their needs, according to Fites. Five key trends are appearing on the market: DTC, user habits, subscriptions, advertising and sustainability. Regarding user habits, he noted that if the idea of a sustainable deodorant format was suggested five years ago, it would have been laughed off the table. Today, consumers are evolving past convenience-only options and considering their impact on their family and the world around them. As an example, Fites pointed to Old Spice deodorant variants that include plastic-free, aluminum-free options.
“Consumers are interested in refills, they’re interested in subscriptions; the new normal means nothing is normal and this is the time to really challenge the consumer,” he asserted. “They have no context of what’s normal. Put new products out there.”
He insisted consumers want engaging experiences to elevate their everyday. “They are looking for brands that take shopping from chore to ritual and experiences from ‘one-size-fits-all’ to OMG! They really know me!’”
The rise of subscriptions coincides with consumers realizing their time and energy are limited and they are putting their money behind lifestyle experiences aligned with similar attitudes and beliefs.
“(Consumers) are over the ‘built-for-everyone, designed-for-no-one’ approach to products and services purchased in the past and are now curating exactly what they want,” he observed.