Green Trend: From Personal Care to Home Care

The trend towards eco-friendly green products is increasingly applying to the home care and cleaning products industry. Ecovia Intelligence, a specialist research, consulting and training company that focuses on global ethical product industries, has highlighted several initiatives brought in by home care brands and ingredients companies this year. 

The majority of developments are in green packaging. Personal care and home care brands are seeming to respond to the growing consumer awareness of plastic waste, leading them to research new materials for packaging. 

In June 2017, P&G became the first company to use 'beach plastic' in bottles for its Head & Shoulders shampoo. The recycled beach plastic then went on to be used in Fairy Liquid bottles. Since then, Unilever, Ecover, Henkel and SC Johnson have all begun using beach plastic in their packaging.

Environmentally-friendly ingredients are gaining traction in home care products and detergents, as will be evidenced at the Sustainable Cleaning Products Summit. The personal care industry is already using an array of natural and sustainable materials in product formulations. Detergent and home care companies are 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. Croda recently launched its ECO range of bio-based surfactants. The surfactants are made from biomass and certified according to the USDA BioPreferred program. 

The number of ethical labelling schemes for home care products is also rising. Natural standards like Ecocert and NPA are highly established, as are environmentally-friendly schemes like Green Seal and Nordic Swan. A new 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 lines. Last month, SC Johnson expanded its line of concentrated cleaning products. P&G has been a pioneer with its laundry detergents for cold water washes. Unilever has gone further by launching a dedicated brand of green home care products. The Love, Home and Planet was introduced a few months ago; the range of laundry, dish and surface cleaning products are made using plant-based ingredients and packaged in recycled plastic. 

Ecovia Intelligence believes the green trend will continue to permeate the home care industry, influencing raw materials, formulations, packaging, as well as marketing of finished products. The question is whether brands should ‘green’ existing home care product lines, or start again and develop dedicated sustainable brands. 

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