Dissolvable cleaning tablets: Everdrop

Everdrop is a company from Munich that has developed a range of cleaning products with the aim of minimising use of plastics and other resources. Everdrop sells dissolvable detergent tabs and reusable spray bottles for kitchen and bathroom cleaning. It also sells dishwasher tabs and laundry detergent powder. The company currently sells its products in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

What makes Everdrop’s products circular

One of the foundational ideas that underpinned Everdrop’s development was the realisation that cleaning products are mostly water. Why then do companies use so many resources to transport something that is already in customers’ homes? 

Redesigning cleaning products that avoid the transport of water, as well as eliminating the use of single-use plastic packaging, led to Everdrop’s range of dissolvable cleaning tablets and reusable, recycled PET or glass bottles.

Everdrop’s founders were also aware that detergents are the largest source of chemicals discharged by households into sewers, which impacts the cost and use of chemicals in wastewater treatment. To address this, Everdrop has created a ‘green chemistry’ formulation for the detergent, as well as providing an online water hardness tool to its customers. This enables the precise amount of detergent to be used based on the characteristics of the local water supply. This means, compared to conventional detergents, up to 50% of unnecessary surfactants can be saved.

The benefits

Everdrop’s tablets and reusable bottles have a number of environmental benefits:

• Waste prevention – every tablet avoids the potential use of a single-use bottle, while the online water hardness tool avoids overuse of detergent.

• Carbon emissions – transport volume is reduced by 80-90%, which cuts transport-related emissions.

• Recycled content – the reusable bottles are available in 100% recycled PET or glass.

• Recyclability/compostability – innovative packaging made from FSC-certified paper with a coating based on harvest waste which can be disposed in the paper waste bin after use for recycling.

Furthermore, the refills are more convenient for customers who no longer have to carry bulky and heavy bottles from store to home. Their small size also means they are better suited to e-commerce. 

Everdrop has worked to make their products as accessible as possible to the wider public by offering the product at €1 per refill/tablet. Since the company was founded, the amount of everdrop products sold has already potentially saved more than 5 million single-use plastic bottles.

Further reading:

The Wearness Interview - here