Milliken, creator of the Capture cleaning system, developed the concentrated tablets for convenient use with any steam-cleaning machine. User simply opens the pouch, removes a 5-g tablet from its individual foil pillow pack, and deposits the tablet and hot water into the steam cleaner receptacle where liquid detergent usually is poured. No messy measuring and pouring from heavy jugs is required.
The Drop’n Go stand-up pouch was designed to replace heavier, less space-efficient bottled liquid carpet cleaner products. The tablets are packaged in an attractive, seven-color-printed, stand-up, polyester film pouch that incorporates non-volatile water-based adhesives. Additional material structure details are considered proprietary.
North State notes that significantly less energy consumption is required to manufacture the film packaging versus bottles. Furthermore, the volume of post-consumer-use, landfill-bound packaging material is considerably less with the pouch packaging.
The pouch also enables significantly reduced freight weight and cube dimensions, resulting in shipping cost savings both for delivery of the packaging material to Milliken and for transport of the pouched tablets through the distribution chain. A six-count pouch of tablets, weighing 30 g, replaces six filled 1-gal bottles, weighing more than 50 lbs. In addition, the smaller shipping cube dimensions for the tablets require less corrugated shipping case materials, thus reducing the amount of corrugated material disposal requirements.
Milliken introduced the Capture Drop’n Go Deep Cleaning Carpet Tablets in March 2007, and currently is marketing the product primarily through supermarkets and Sears stores. Suggested retail price is $6.99 for a six-pack and $12.99 for a 12-pack. Milliken brand manager Clark Tomlinson says, “Consumer feedback has been very nice. They like the convenience of storage and use, the light weight, and the environmental benefits. And we take our hats off to the retailers who recognize and appreciate the innovation and sustainability issues addressed by this packaging.”
