SEPAWA® CONGRESS 2022 

Speaker: Mireia Collado

Company: Kao Chemicals Europe

Title: Addressing Sustainability With Waterless Formats in Consumer Products

Abstract: More than ever, consumers are tapping into eco-friendly claims when looking at daily goods such as detergent and cosmetic products. Additionally, waste-free lifestyles are becoming more and more popular among consumers, who place special emphasis on replacing single-use plastics by refillable options. In line with the current market trend, there is also a European call for a commitment to sustainability, which further reinforces the necessity of innovative eco-friendly products that meet the European Green Deal objectives. To meet with the demands of society, the Home and Personal Care industry is being challenged to move towards more sustainable formulations, showcasing an amazing variety of innovative formats, starting from dilutable super-concentrated compositions and ending with totally water-free alternatives that cut back on single-use plastics and water transportation. However, the main challenge is to ensure the efficacy of sustainable formats and ingredients. Consequently, at Kao, we have concentrated our efforts on designing surfactant products that facilitate the formulation of these emerging challenging compositions. Being key active ingredients in the present formulations, our selected surfactants not only enable our customers to be aligned with today’s sustainable concern, but also to provide the functional value that consumers are looking for. This lecture aims to share the best of our technical knowledge about innovative waterless formulations. As a whole, this project aims to present how sustainable waterless formats can be formulated selecting key ingredients to produce convenient products, which offer good performance and are environmentally friendly at the same time.