Eco, bio, organic – all those trendy green labels were overused in the past couple of years in order to boost the sales of a certain cleaning product and silence the environmentally friendly population.

But what does green actually mean? This term is supposed to be used for cleansers which have no harmful effect on the environment. As that’s a very broad definition, there’s a rising issue in this industry. More and more companies make their products look “greener” than they are. This phenomenon is called “green washing” and threatens the reputation of the whole eco-friendly concept. What can be done in this case?

The issue is that green can indeed stand for a lot of different things – it can be completely harmless for the environment or just produced using less water. The good news is that the world is already trying to deal with misleading labeling.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, for example, came up with official definitions of the eco-friendly labels in 2012. According to the guidelines, for a manufacturer to say that their product is “biodegradable”, it must “completely break down and return to nature” within one year.

The European Union developed the EU Ecolabel – a voluntary scheme, which producers, importers and retailers can apply for the labels of their products. An eco-label is a trustworthy symbol demonstrating that a certain product is genuinely better for the environment.

The irony is that somehow the green hand-soaps, washing detergents or dishwasher tablets are still perceived with a great deal of scepticism. As if they miss a magical ingredient and this makes them less effective than the “normal” products. Is this true though?

Actually, a study titled “Cleaning products and air fresheners: exposure to primary and secondary air pollutants” found that green and non-green products are relatively the same in levels of cleanliness. The presence of a non-green chemical can make the cleaning process a bit easier. But green definitely does clean!

In some cases, the environmentally friendly equivalents of the regular cleansers don’t have the same strength. For example, the cleaning products that contain chlorine, such as bleach, need less effort to achieve satisfying results. Using their green counterparts requires more scrubbing in order to get the job done.

Besides the doubts whether eco-friendly cleansers are effective enough, there’s another major obstacle in front of the industry. According to the survey Green Gauge Global, 6 out of 10 consumers worldwide feel that eco-friendly products are too expensive.

Some experts, however, suggest that this is a common misconception. Actually, many green products come in a concentrated solution or serve more than one purpose. When investing a little bit extra in one cleanser, the consumers avoid buying multiple products which in the end is not only environmentally but also budget-friendly.

The Sirius Effect

In order to be transparent with your customers, you have to choose the claims and ingredients you use with and in your products carefully. Do you want to launch an eco-friendly line of products that actually get the job done? With Sirius, manufacturing an effective and green cleanser is easier than ever. Call us today!

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+31(0)355485898 | info@siriusint.com | http://www.siriusint.com

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