The green trend in the personal care industry is finally spreading to the home care and cleaning products industry, according to Ecovia Intelligence. In fact, this year a number of important environmentally-conscious initiatives have been introduced by home care brands and ingredient firms.
 
The bulk of these new developments is occurring in green packaging. Growing consumer awareness of plastic pollution has led personal care and home care brands to experiment with new packaging materials. In June 2017, P&G was the first to use recycled ‘beach plastic’ in its Head & Shoulders shampoo packaging; the recycled beach plastic was then utilized in its Fairy liquid bottles. Henkel, Unilever, Ecover and SC Johnson have all since started using beach plastic in product packaging.
 
Additionally, a number of personal care and home care brands have partnered with TerraCycle to launch the Loop platform, a circular shopping platform that aims to make single-use packaging a thing of the past. Through the program, personal care and home care products, as well as food products, are delivered to consumer households and the waste packaging is collected so it can be re-used. Loop was launched in the US and France this year, and will later be introduced in the UK and Canada.
 
Green ingredients are also gaining currency in detergents and home care products. As will be displayed at the Sustainable Cleaning Products Summit, the personal care industry is already using an array of natural and sustainable materials in product formulations. For example, detergent and home care companies are now looking at renewable feedstock to make green surfactants. Sustainable palm oil and coconut oil have been used for many years; however new sources are emerging, such as Croda’s recently launched ECO range of bio-based surfactants made from biomass and certified according to the USDA BioPreferred program.
 
Also rising is the number of ethical labelling schemes for home care products. Natural standards like Ecocert and NPA are highly established, as are environmentally-friendly schemes like Green Seal and Nordic Swan. Another development is that new labels are being introduced to represent products not containing contentious ingredients. In 2018, the Environmental Working Group extended its EWG Certified label to home care products. The Made Safe label has also recently been extended to home care products.
 
Large consumer good companies are responding by developing greener product lines. Last month, SC Johnson, which has been a pioneer with its laundry detergents for cold water washes, expanded its line of concentrated cleaning products. Unilever has gone a step further by launching a dedicated brand of green home care products. The Love, Home and Planet range of laundry, dish and surface cleaning products is made using plant-based ingredients and is packaged in recycled plastic.
 
Ecovia Intelligence believes that the green trend is only getting started and will continue to permeate the home care industry, influencing raw materials, formulations, packaging and marketing of finished products. The question is whether brands should ‘green’ existing home care product lines, or develop new dedicated sustainable brands.
 
More info: www.sustainablecosmeticssummit.com, www.sustainablecleaningsummit.com