Kerry Tomane, the Head of Marketing at Earthwise, shared that convenience was a key driver of laundry market purchasing as consumers see little difference between brands and products. If other brands present additional benefits or convenience, consumers will switch brands.
Tomane shared that sustainability was at the heart of everything Earthwise does, and addressing consumer demand for an eco-friendly laundry scoop was imperative.
Earthwise’s eco-laundry scoop is a first of its kind, structured as a flat cardboard design. It is incorporated into the die-line of the existing laundry box, where consumers tear along the perforation and self-assemble the scoop following three easy steps. The scoop has a volume capacity of 30 grams, which measures a standard powder dosage and is 100 percent recyclable.
Earthwise’s packaging philosophy, reflective of the Earthwise Group’s pledged support to the New Zealand Packaging Declaration, is to have 100 percent of its packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
“Since October 2018, Earthwise has reused and diverted over 950 Tonnes of plastic from landfills since using at least 75 percent recycled plastic content in bottles.”
The brand’s carton packaging was already 100 percent recyclable, crafted from PEFC board, with the new laundry scoop fitting in perfectly with Earthwise's existing product and packaging ethos.
The new scoop further demonstrated Earthwise’s commitment to sustainability, national targets, and adherence to sustainable packaging guidelines through its reduction of unnecessary use of plastic. Its 100 percent recyclability has zero increase on the product's carbon footprint and does not increase costs as it requires no additional labour or equipment to create.
Tomane stated that sustainability was a movement, not a trend and that the brand was committed to creating an eco-friendly solution whilst there was consumer demand for a scoop.
“Small changes can still make a tangible benefit to the environment.”
Going on further, Tomane shared that sharing knowledge and collaboration could be incredibly powerful for the industry as a whole to come together to create potential solutions with a unified goal.
Earthwise’s practices differ from traditional scoops provided in laundry powder, which are fully formed as a separate product crafted from plastic or board. Traditional scoops require extra packaging and processing steps that can create further waste.
Extra processing has the potential of requiring additional labour or equipment to physically add the scoop into laundry powder boxes, which is a design challenge that Earthwise wanted to address directly.
“The design challenge for us was to create a scoop that was an integral part of the existing unit carton, optimise the use of existing unit carton board sheet and avoid additional cost.”
This required the team to innovate, and by working closely with its packaging supplier, Forbes Packaging, Earthwise was able to come up with its current solution.
Earthwise has committed itself to look at new projects each year that reduce water, energy consumption, and waste production as an Environmental Choice Certified (ECNZ) company, which is New Zealand’s highest eco-friendly accreditation. Measuring its energy and water consumption is completed annually as part of this certification.
Tomane revealed that Earthwise would be removing the resealable bag in its dish tablets, which has taken extensive product and packaging trials to achieve.
When discussing the global plastic pollution crisis, Tomane shared that the most significant challenges companies such as Earthwise face in addressing the problem are related to cost-effectively achieving scale. Tomane explained that investment is required from numerous companies to increase supply and drive down costs.
“Incorporating recycled content in packaging is a step towards this, but we only moved to this after rigorous testing to ensure the bottle still did its job.”
Tomane emphasised that sustainability was a journey, not an end goal. With that central to Earthwise’s philosophy, the company is consistently and continually searching and implementing ways to improve its carbon footprint. Working with and supporting existing regional and national recycling schemes is essential when improving the recycling infrastructure.
