Wal-Mart's smaller detergent bottle to reduce packaging

Wal-Mart will decide whether to roll out a packaging-saving plan for liquid detergents to the UK and the rest of the world once it has assessed results in the US and Canada.

The retailer said yesterday (26 September) that it would sell only smaller bottles of double-concentrate liquid detergents in stores in the US and Canada from May 2008. Wal-Mart said this would save more than 45,000 tonnes of plastic resin, 59,000 tonnes of cardboard and 1.6 billion litres of water over three years.

Sales are expected to reach more than 800 million bottles over the same period in these two regions. Wal-Mart sells around a quarter of all the liquid detergent sold in the US.

Although the technology to concentrate liquid detergent has been available for more than a decade, Wal-Mart said it had been "little used due to lack of interest in commercialisation".

In 2005, the firm worked with Unilever to reduce the packaging of its liquid detergents and the following year unveiled "All Small & Mighty" bottles in the US.

These were launched in the UK earlier this year for the Persil and Surf brands. Unilever claimed the switch had reduced packaging by 40% and water usage and shipping volumes by 60%.

Procter & Gamble followed Unilever's lead in the US earlier this year.
Source: packagingnews