As editor of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. today announced that by May, the company's U.S. stores only will sell concentrated products in the liquid laundry detergent category. The company says the change will save more than 400 million gallons of water, 125 million pounds of cardboard -- and 95 million pounds of plastic.
The move obviously saves a lot of shipping and handling costs too. Smaller bottles take less space, and less energy to transport. According to Wal-Mart's news release:
The technology to concentrate liquid detergent has been available for more than a decade, but was little used due to lack of interest in commercialization. Partnering closely with its suppliers, Wal-Mart made the decision to offer only concentrated detergent, and leading manufacturers began transforming their facilities to accommodate this request, leaving less capacity for old-fashioned detergents with high water content. This encouraged other retailers to move toward selling only the concentrated version of liquid detergents.
Bravo to Wal-Mart, this is a move that makes a lot of sense.