Dirt Is Good (also known as Persil, Skip and OMO), Unilever's (London, UK) largest laundry brand, has launched newly designed capsules to help decarbonise during the laundry process while providing top cleaning performance.
The new capsules are packaged in a plastic-free cardboard container, a move designed to prevent more than 6,000 tonnes of plastic from entering the waste stream each year - the equivalent of 500 double-decker buses.
The specially designed formula contains 65% biodegradable active ingredients from plants and is optimised to provide top cleaning performance in cold and short cycles. The redesigned capsule film is fully biodegradable and has the fastest dissolution rate on the market, designed to leave no residue on clothing. The new capsules have a 16% reduction in carbon footprint (compared to existing capsules) and when used in cold, short cycles, consumers can save up to 60% energy per use.
The reduction of emissions over the product life cycle puts the new Unilever capsules at the forefront of decarbonisation efforts in the laundry industry. This is an important step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its laundry business area 3, which includes emissions associated with the end use of Unilever products by consumers, such as the energy required to power washing machines.
For the first time ever, laundry capsules will be packaged in a ground-breaking plastic-free cardboard box. Conceived in collaboration with Graphic Packaging International, the innovative box has been developed over many years to lock in moisture and prevent the capsules from sticking to each other better than current plastic packaging. The boxes are easier to open and close, are child-safe and fully recyclable. 50% of the cardboard comes from recycled sources and the rest from FSC certified forests (Forest Stewardship Council).
The new products, which will be launched first in France and then rolled out to other markets, are another example of Unilever's Clean Future strategy. Announced in September 2020, the strategy aims to fundamentally change the way some of the world's best-known cleaning and laundry products are created, manufactured and packaged, with an investment of €1 billion over 10 years.
