AMMAN — An initiative launched on Wednesday seeks to encourage consumers to start using concentrated laundry detergent to reduce water and electricity consumption.
Calling on companies to produce condensed powdered detergent to save the environment, the International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products (AISE) announced the launch of the “Concentrate for the Environment” initiative at a press conference in the capital.
AISE Project Manager Pinolo Fontanari said the voluntary industry-led sustainability scheme seeks to reduce the environmental impact of the production and consumption of powdered detergent used in washing machines.
The nationwide initiative is open to all companies that manufacture or supply laundry detergent in the local market, he added.
Participating companies must commit to compacting all heavy-duty powder detergents by a certain percentage, thus decreasing the recommended dosage while maintaining performance quality, according to Fontanari.
For example, a four-kilogramme pack of washing powder must be reduced to three kilogrammes or less of concentrated detergent, while ensuring that the smaller pack washes the same amount of laundry as the regular pack, organisers of the event said.
“There are around five to six companies that produce and sell detergents in Jordan; so far two of them have committed to our initiative,” Fontanari told The Jordan Times.
He noted that concentrated detergents will be available soon, when these two firms start supplying the local market with their new products.
The initiative will run from January through March, according to Dima Jallad, a member of AISE, who said that participating companies will place the “Concentrated Detergent” logo on their products, detailing the correct amounts of condensed laundry powder to use.
Jallad noted that a similar initiative was launched in 2010 in Egypt and the Gulf countries, where it achieved positive environmental savings in product consumption.
The initiative aims at reducing the environmental load related to laundry in terms of chemicals, packaging materials and energy consumption, according to AISE.
Meanwhile, the Jordan Environment Society’s environment awareness and public relations officer, Farah Namrouqa, said the society supports the initiative and calls on local detergent companies to commit to it.
“Jordan suffers from an acute water shortage and currently imports the majority of its energy needs; therefore, cutting down on the consumption of water and electricity is imperative,” Namrouqa said during the press conference.
