🌏 Shaping the Market ♻️
Large commercial buyers of cleaning products such as big box stores, commercial cleaning companies, and educational institutions play a significant role in shaping the market due to their purchasing power. Their decisions can influence manufacturing practices, product availability, and consumer behavior. Therefore, their choices towards sustainable cleaning products can have a major impact on the environment, economy, and society. Here's why it's important:
- Environmental Impact: Cleaning products can have a substantial impact on the environment. They often contain chemicals that can pollute waterways when rinsed down drains, contribute to air pollution when released into the atmosphere, and generate waste through their packaging. By choosing more sustainable options, large buyers can reduce these environmental harms.
- Health and Safety: Many traditional cleaning products contain substances that can be harmful to human health, causing problems such as skin irritation, respiratory issues, and even long-term health effects. Sustainable cleaning products often use safer ingredients, which can improve the health and safety of those using the products and those in the cleaned environment.
- Economic Sustainability: By supporting companies that produce sustainable cleaning products, large buyers can help drive economic growth in a more sustainable direction. This can help create jobs in green industries and contribute to a more resilient economy.
- Consumer Demand: Increasingly, consumers are demanding more sustainable products. Large buyers that offer these products can meet this demand, enhancing their reputation and potentially attracting more customers.
- Regulatory Compliance: Regulations around environmental protection and waste disposal are becoming more stringent in many parts of the world. By choosing sustainable products, large buyers can ensure they stay compliant with these regulations.
- Corporate Social Responsibility: Many organizations are recognizing the importance of corporate social responsibility, and choosing sustainable products can be part of fulfilling this responsibility. This can improve an organization's image, attract socially conscious customers, and potentially provide a competitive advantage.
The Circular Approach
A circular supply chain refers to a type of supply chain management that maximizes the life cycle of all resources involved. It aims to reduce waste, minimize environmental impact, and create sustainable economic growth. It's based on the principles of the circular economy, which is a model of production and consumption that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible.
The circular supply chain contrasts with the traditional linear model of 'take-make-dispose', where raw materials are collected, transformed into products, and then discarded after use. Instead, the circular supply chain envisions a loop where materials, parts, and products are recovered and regenerated at the end of each service life.
When it comes to cleaning products, the circular supply chain approach can be implemented in several ways:
- Designing Products for Longevity and Reuse: Cleaning products can be designed to last longer and/or to be refilled. This can involve creating concentrated versions of products that dissolve into their containers, thereby reducing the amount of water used and potentially reducing the volume and weight of products, which could save on transportation emissions.
- Recyclable or Compostable Packaging: Many cleaning products come in plastic packaging, which can contribute to pollution if not disposed of properly. Companies could switch to recyclable or compostable packaging, or even packaging that dissolves along with the product, as a way to reduce waste.
- Recovering and Recycling Resources: Companies could establish programs to take back used containers and refill them, or they could partner with recycling facilities to ensure that their packaging is recycled into new products.
Future innovations in circular supply chains and sustainable packaging in the cleaning industry could include:
- Smart Packaging: Advanced packaging solutions that not only protect the product but also enhance its usability and recyclability. This might involve materials that change color when the product is used up, or containers made from biodegradable materials that can be composted at home.
- Water-less Products: With growing concerns about water scarcity, companies might develop more cleaning products that require less or no water. This could include products in a concentrated form that only need water at the point of use, or completely water-less products such as cleaning wipes or sprays.
⭐ We'll be talking circular supply chain and sustainable innovation at the Circularity 23 Event at the Hyatt Regency in Seattle, Washington June 5th through 7th. We hope to see you there!
Aqua ChemPacs dissolving concentrated cleaners are a smart solution for commercial cleaning. They allow for reusing bottles, they weigh less, and they take up less space. That all adds up to a substantially lower carbon footprint.
"We’re on a mission to remove single-use plastic from the commercial cleaning experience. And we will continue with innovation on that front for our customers. ."
--- Zack Belusic, Director of Sustainability