After joining forces with green cleaning company Method in 2012 to become the world’s largest green cleaning company, Ecover® has launched its popular green brand in North America with a fresh new look in celebration of the company’s 35th birthday, while maintaining a focus on sustainability, efficacy, and best-practice manufacturing.
Ecover selected Sonoco, one of the largest diversified packaging companies, to produce the plant-based bottles for Ecover’s new home care line.
“As a leader in the green cleaning space, Ecover sought a packaging partner [that] could collaborate on sustainable packaging solutions and meet an aggressive commercialization timeline,” says Andrew Moreno, Procurement Director, Ecover North America. “We also required responsive service and a near-site manufacturing facility to minimize lead times and environmental impact. Sonoco has the ability to provide all of this and perfectly meet our needs. We feel this new line of packaging will help Ecover reach more consumers while continuing to be deeply rooted in nature-based science.”
Ecover’s new look hit store shelves across the U.S. in August 2014 in Sonoco’s extrusion blow-molded bottles made from Plantplastic, Ecover’s proprietary blend of bio-sourced high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and post-consumer recycled (PCR) resin. The bio-resin, which is produced using plant-based feedstock and recycled resin collected from municipal curbside programs across the U.S., uses up to 90% less energy and emits 75% less greenhouse gases compared to petroleum-based virgin resin, and is recyclable in most curbside recycling programs.
“Sonoco is proud to partner with Ecover to become the brand’s HDPE bottle provider in North America, collaborating to produce a fresh new line of bottles,” says Jeff DiPasquale, Vice President, Sonoco Blow Molding. “Our material and technical expertise, responsiveness, and customer focus created a perfect match between Sonoco and Ecover.”
Ecover was founded in Belgium in 1980—before words like ‘sustainability’ and ‘eco-friendly’ were being used, says the company—by a team of eco-pioneers who had enough proof to show that phosphates, a common ingredient used in laundry and dishwater products, were polluting our water systems. They wanted to create a phosphate-free washing powder. It was a real success that soon found its way to health food stores across Europe. Ecover now has 35 different products distributed in 40 countries. In addition to its green factories in Belgium and France, the company has now opened a manufacturing site in Chicago.
