Can your laundry be clean and ‘green’?

Among the brightly coloured boxes of laundry products on supermarket shelves are those touting themselves as “kinder to the planet” or “safer for you, your family and the world” – but are they really?

The laundry products we examined

Consumer NZ looked at six green laundry powders and sheets to see whether their manufacturers could provide robust evidence to back up their green claims.

We found that half the products we analysed could provide most of the evidence needed to back their claims – either on the product’s pack, the company’s website or when we contacted the company directly.

However, the other half didn’t provide any evidence.

Earthwise Plant Powered Laundry Powder, 1kg

The Earthwise laundry powder box has an Environmental Choice certification stamp on it.

Environmental Choice (which rebranded to Eco Choice Aotearoa in 2023) is administered by the New Zealand EcoLabelling Trust on behalf of the Ministry for the Environment. The initiative offers independent assessment of environmental claims for a range of products, including laundry powder.

Having Environmental Choice certification backs up the product’s biodegradability claim, along with some of the language around its use of natural ingredients.

However, we found some of the phrasing on the pack a bit vague, for example the statement, “If nature makes it, then we don’t need to”. Some toxic materials are derived from nature, yet the statement could suggest that nature is safer than manufactured alternatives.

Similarly, some laundry powders, including those made by Earthwise, contain surfactants derived from palm kernel oil, instead of surfactants derived from fossil fuels. While palm oil is from nature, it is also problematic for the environment (we’ll come back to this, further down the article).

Earthwise uses certified palm oil. However, it buys the oil using the mass balance supply chain, which means the certified palm oil is mixed with oil from non-certified sources.

Ecostore Ultra-Sensitive Laundry Powder, 1kg

On the back of the pack of Ecostore laundry powder is the statement “safer for you, your family and our world.”

We contacted Ecostore to ask it to back up the statement. It said the certifications it holds reinforce its ethos of caring for people and the planet with its products.

The certifications are from independent third-party organisations, which have rigor in their standards, such as Environmental Choice.

However, Environmental Choice allows palm oil to be used in products, and ecostore confirmed the laundry powder includes palm-oil derivatives (lauryl glucoside and oleic acid).

“When produced responsibly, palm oil is a much-needed renewable alternative to many petrochemical ingredients that rely on fossil fuels, which are contributing to climate change,” said Ecostore’s spokesperson.

“At ecostore, the majority of their palm-derived ingredients are RSPO certified sustainable, and they are working towards 100% as more certified material becomes available.”

However, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (or RSPO) has come under criticism for its practices (discussed later in this article).

Ecostore also holds Toitū Enviro Mark Diamond certification – an independent certification that focuses on the environmental impact of the Ecostore factory.

EcoLiving Laundry Detergent Sheets

We couldn’t find anything on the pack or company website to back up the claims made on the packs of EcoLiving laundry sheets. We contacted the company to back up the claims but didn’t get any response before publication.

Persil Active Clean

Persil has been pulled up on its green claims in the past. In March 2023, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled on two complaints it received about Persil’s TV ad campaign.

The ad showed scenes of deforestation and water pollution, along with children picking up plastic from beaches, while the voice over said, “We’re changing too, with 100% recyclable bottles.” The slogan “kinder to the planet” was also used in the ad.

The complainants felt the ad was misleading, because the bottles had probably always been recyclable and the slogan “kinder to the planet” wasn’t backed up with any facts.

The chair of the Advertising Standards Authority agreed and started the complaints process. However, as part of that process, the advertiser is given a chance to remove the ad – which Unilever (Persil’s parent company) did.

It appears the company has since made moves to support its “kinder to the planet” claim by stating environmental information more clearly on its packaging.

However, it doesn’t provide any information about its biodegradability testing on the pack. A claim that a product is biodegradable is only useful if it’s backed up with details of what the biodegradability testing found. Most things biodegrade eventually.

We asked Unilever to back up its biodegradable claim. It said the laundry powder was tested to an international standard (OECD 301B), which measures whether the substance biodegrades within 28 days.

We also asked the company to back up what it meant by the phrase “naturally derived stain removers”. The cleaning action in laundry powder is carried out by a chemical compound called surfactants, which can be derived from petrochemicals or from plants.

A spokesperson for Unilever confirmed that the main surfactant used in the powder is fossil fuel based, while the secondary one is “a combination of fossil and palm oil ingredients”.

Unilever is aiming to replace all fossil fuels in Persil formulations by 2030.

Persil has been reformulated to replace some surfactants with enzymes derived from plants, a spokesperson said.

In the meantime, we feel labelling the laundry powder as “powered by naturally derived stain removers” obscures the fact it still uses some fossil-fuel-based ingredients. And while palm oil is from nature, the environmental impacts of its use are not benign. We think the claim is potentially misleading.

We also think there are broader issues with Persil’s “kinder to the planet” slogan.

When we researched products that advertise themselves as “green” for this story, we found they are all doing similar things – using a compostable scoop, getting biodegradability tests, using recyclable packaging and moving from fossil-fuel-based surfactants to palm oil. To suggest that a product is “kinder to the planet” could imply a comparison with other products on the market, and in this context, is potentially misleading.

Re-stor Pre Measured Laundry Detergent Sheets

We didn’t find anything on the pack or company website to back up the claims made by Re-stor laundry sheets. We contacted the company for information but didn’t get any response before publication.

Tru Earth Eco-strips Laundry Detergent

A spokesperson for Tru Earth told us its product has a smaller environmental footprint because its packaging doesn’t contain plastic and it’s lighter to transport, which cuts carbon emissions.

While the laundry strips’ packaging is made of cardboard, and the company provided estimate calculations to back up its reduced carbon emissions claim, this hasn’t been independently assessed.

We would expect more robust evidence to back up Tru Earth’s claims. Without evidence, we think the claims are vague and potentially misleading.

Is it more expensive to buy green laundry products?

The two most expensive laundry detergents per load are both marketed as green products: Tru Earth Eco-Strips came in at 86 cents a load, followed by Persil Active clean at 53 cents.

The cheapest is also marketed as green – EcoStore Ultra-Sensitive at 12 cents a load. Pams, a budget brand with no obvious green marketing, comes in at 18 cents a load.

For a few cents more than Pams, you could buy Earthwise Plant Powered Laundry Powder. The rest of the laundry powders ranged from 22 cents through to 31 cents a load.

With the top-shelf price, and green credentials, you’d think you’d get performance, too. Sadly not – Tru Earth was the least effective product, according to Consumer testing.

Reducing the impact of washing on the environment

All cleaning products place a burden on the environment through their manufacturing and packaging, and the materials they release into the wastewater.

Some have less impact than others, because they recommend lower doses or leave out ingredients that don’t contribute to washing performance.

However, there is a balance to be struck between impact and effectiveness. It’s no use having a green product that doesn’t work – that’s just a waste of resources. It could also put people off buying other green products.

The variable effectiveness of laundry products claiming to be green was demonstrated in Consumer’s testing, where the laundry sheets scored particularly poorly. Tru Earth was the worst, scoring just 28 out of 100. Re-stor didn’t fare much better with a score of 30, and Eco Living came in at 37.

At the other end of the scale, Persil Active Clean rated highly with a score of 89, while both Earthwise and Ecostore sat around the middle at 55.

So, how do you reduce the impact of washing on the environment?

By all means, seek out green laundry products that work and can back up their environmental claims. But there are also some practical things you can do to make wash day more environmentally friendly:

• follow the dosage instructions
• use the lowest acceptable wash temperature to save energy
• wash full loads – some washing machines use the same amount of electricity and water, whether they’re full or half empty.

Other potential nasties in laundry products

The problem with palm oil

Some laundry powders, sheets and detergents contain palm-oil surfactants, instead of surfactants derived from fossil fuels. While palm oil is a renewable source, it has also been the cause of deforestation in Indonesia and Malysia, which impacts the habitat of orangutans, tigers and elephants, according to the WWF.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was set up to ensure palm oil is produced sustainably. However, it has been criticised for the adequacy of its standards, such as, allowing non-certified palm oil to be mixed with certified oil, referred to in its supply chain certification system as mass balance.

In light of this, the RSPO will be reviewing its supply chain certification system in 2024.

“The review will potentially consider strengthening the requirements for the mass balance model to improve traceability and credibility of the model,” an RSPO spokesperson said.

New Zealand’s Environmental Choice certification scheme allows roundtable-certified palm oil to be used in the products it assesses.

It sees the use of palm oil as a complex trade off.

This is because other alternatives – like soybean, rapeseed and coconut oil – don’t have certification schemes. Growing the alternative oil crops can also lead to loss of wildlife and social issues, like child labour and poverty of workers.

The remaining option, of surfactants made from petrochemicals, pollutes the environment and derives from a non-renewable source.

The problem with some optical brighteners

While palm oil is problematic, there are potentially other nasties in laundry detergents that have an environmental impact.

Laura Gemmell, the chief executive officer at EcoChoice Aotearoa, said optical brighteners, used to make clothes whiter and brighter, do not biodegrade and are harmful to marine life.

Gemmell also said laundry detergents may also include forever chemicals, also known as PFAS.

“Once released it can travel long distances through air, water and soil. It contaminates everything which is why it’s important manufacturers do not intentionally add PFAS to their products,” Gemmell said.

EcoChoice Aotearoa (formerly Environmental Choice) independently assess products to ensure they don’t contain ingredients that are harmful to the environment or are unnecessary for removing dirt.

What is greenwashing?

Green claims suggest a product, service or business is less harmful to the environment than its competitors.

Greenwashing happens when a business misleads consumers about its green credentials. This can be through using vague or unclear environmental terms, or by exaggerating the environmental benefits of its products.

The European Commission is proposing new laws requiring manufacturers to provide robust evidence to back up environmental claims, such as reputable scientific reports, evidence that the product performs better than others on the market, and if necessary, life-cycle studies to back up their green claims.

The proposed new regulations state it must be clear if a green claim relates to a specific aspect of a product or the whole thing. So, for example, if a pack of laundry detergent is advertised as recyclable, but has a plastic scoop that can’t be recycled, then it would be misleading to label all the packaging as recyclable.

Similarly, if a product makes a claim about environmental performance, it should consider all impacts on the environment. For laundry powder, this could mean the impact of sourcing its ingredients, along with where the packaging ends up, and the impact on waterways from using the product.